Pokemon: Uprising
by thejazzienerd
Summary: The Torren Region's cults may be a problem, but what happens when the real monster is the one who fights them? This is not Pokemon as you know it. AU, based on a fan-game.
1. Trailer

_Black screen. The sound of cheering can be heard. The screen brightens moderately slowly to reveal a town square packed with people, all watching a giant TV monitor erected at one end._

 _A man with blond hair pulled back into a ponytail is speaking on the TV._

"These terrorists think they can scare us. Well, this is Torren. And here, we do not give in to this sort of threat."

 _He continues talking as the scene changes to show another man, this one with close-cropped brown hair. He's sitting in a chair, looking at something that isn't visible from this camera angle. The camera slowly zooms in on him, as though someone is walking towards him. A gunshot is heard, and the man slumps forward onto the desk._

"The Augur's death was a terrible tragedy, but we will rise from the ashes. His killers are still at large and must be brought to justice, so it is with a heavy heart that I ascend to the office."

 _Everyone cheers._

* * *

 _The scene shifts again. Now the camera is above the clouds, moving forward at a rapid pace, as though on the back of a bird._

Female voice-over: This is Torren, my home.

 _As the voice speaks, the camera dives through the clouds, revealing a dense forest below, and, off in the distance, a house._

Female voice-over: At least, it used to be.

 _Cut to the inside of a house. There's blood all over the floor. The camera moves slowly through the rooms, following the viewpoint of someone walking as though in a daze. It enters the kitchen and lingers on two bodies, of a man and a woman, before snapping to a black screen._

Female voice-over: They killed my parents. And now they're trying to kill me.

 _Third-person camera perspective. A girl with long, brown hair runs through a forest, a Growlithe at her side. There's a smile on her face._

Female voice-over: They took everything from me.

 _Quickly fade to black. Text appears on screen._

"Thejazzienerd presents…"

* * *

 _The same girl, now a couple years older, pulls a Pokeball from her bag and releases an oddly-colored Bulbasaur. Facing them is a Skrelp, commanded by a man with blue hair, wearing a blue, one-piece bodysuit._

Female voice-over: I'm the only one who understands what's going on, so I have to stop it.

 _Fade to black. More text._

"A new kind of Pokémon story…"

* * *

 _Three men in blue bodysuits corner a Riolu between them._

* * *

 _The blond man pulls out a Master Ball and throws it._

* * *

 _The Tao Trio flies in a triangular formation above the forest._

* * *

 _Shaymin uses Seed Flare above a polluted pool._

* * *

Female voice: We could actually pull this off.

Pause.

Male voice: You have a week.

Female voice: That's impossible.

 _Quickly fade to black. More text._

"Based on the fan-game _Pokémon: Insurgence_ , made by thesuzerain.."

* * *

 _A young man with light brown hair stands, looking at a map of the region laid out on a table._

Girl (from offscreen): If we don't move now, we lose our chance.

* * *

 _The blond man slams his fist on a tabletop._

"I want her eliminated!"

* * *

 _The brunette girl turns her back to the camera._

"I never wanted this. I didn't ask to be a hero."

Male voice (from offscreen): I'm afraid you have no choice.

* * *

 _A young boy brandishes a Mega Stone._

* * *

 _Groudon prepares a Solar Beam._

* * *

 _A man in a lab coat levels a gun at the girl._

* * *

 _A Metagross uses Meteor Mash on a computer terminal._

* * *

Female voice (during the previous scenes): We will not be silenced!

* * *

 _A battle rages in the streets of a city. Several Legendary Pokémon can be seen amongst the combatants as the camera swoops above the fighting. It zooms in on the girl, who stands on the domed roof of one of the tallest buildings. A Dragonite flies up to her, and she jumps on, flying off to join the battle._

Female voice-over: If you had the chance to change the world, wouldn't you take it?

 _Fade to black._

 **"Pokémon: Uprising"**

 **"Coming December 26, 2015"**

* * *

 **AN: This is my attempt at creating a trailer for my first major work of** **fanfiction. I wanted to preview it in some way, and, since I always think of my stories as movies, this seemed ideal. I don't particularly like how it came out, but this is my first attempt at writing a trailer, and I wanted to do it without giving away any major plot points.**

 **Also, the Torren Region is the setting of _Pokemon: Insurgence_ , which inspired this fic.**


	2. Chapter 1: Vale

_No one knows where they came from, these creatures we call Pokémon. All we do know is that one day these magnificent creatures appeared in our world, and haven't seemed inclined to leave it. For nearly 3000 years, they have swum in the seas, flown in the skies, and walked Earth along side us. They are nearly as intelligent as we are, in some cases more so, and over the years have represented a great aid in the development of humankind._

 _To some, they are friends and companions. To others, they are partners in the workplace. To those who call themselves Pokémon Trainers, they are a combination of both._

 _Some Pokémon, the most powerful of them, remain aloof, apart from the world of people. These Legendary Pokémon watch over and safeguard the balance of our shared world and are rumored to step in when it is disrupted. Only a handful of people have ever seen a Legendary Pokémon. Fewer still have been able to gain one's trust, for these beings are said to be able to look into people's hearts and allow themselves to be caught only if the Trainer is deemed worthy._

Even before the Pokémon League was disbanded there, Torren didn't behave like the other regions of the world. Gym leaders built their teams around a theme other than a single type. Instead of the League breeding and raising starter Pokémon specifically to be given to beginner Trainers, many kids were given a couple of Poke Balls, lent a Pokémon, and sent to catch their own starter.

It also wasn't even remotely safe to travel. For as long as anyone could remember, the Torren region had problems with gang violence. Now, every region has had its evil teams, but Torren's give the phrase a new meaning. They kill because they enjoy it, and do so ritualistically, because "gang" isn't the right word for them, so much as "cult." That's how they describe themselves.

Torren's cults have varied in number over time, having anywhere from two to two dozen at various points in history. Most of the region's people live in constant fear of them, and with good reason. Across the centuries, most people who have tried to stand up to them have ended up murdered. Trying to stop them is like playing Whac-a-Diglett; as soon as one gets whacked, another takes its place.

In other regions, parents warn their kids about the possibility of running into wild Pokémon should they leave town without a Pokémon of their own. In Torren, the real danger is not the wild Pokémon, which, statistically speaking, rarely attack humans anyway. It's the cults. Travelers have Pokémon with them because it's a matter of life and death. It's frighteningly common for cultists, who are all Trainers themselves, to attack travelers seemingly at random, leaving nothing but bodies behind. Because of the overwhelming risk involved, Trainers from other regions stopped coming to Torren to challenge the gyms twenty years ago, leaving the League with no choice but to pack up and leave. Torren still has its traveling Trainers, but substantially fewer than in other regions like Hoenn or Kalos, and, without gyms to challenge, many never have any reason to go further from home than the next town over. They are also much older in Torren, in their twenties and thirties, with only a handful of teenagers, as opposed to the crowds of kids in other regions.

It is no safer for the Pokémon. Cultists don't care whether a day's victims are a group of traveling Trainers or a family of Pokémon. Even the vast labyrinth of the Shade Woods, once a haven for countless species, is now threatened, for deep within it lies the headquarters of the Cult of Darkrai.

It lies hidden underground. The only entrance is a cave in a large rock outcropping, hidden by a Zoroark's Illusion. If one were both lucky enough to find it and stupid enough to go inside, they would find a truly dreary place colored entirely in various shades of grey.

The first level houses whatever administrative services religious fanatics require, as well as a built-in Pokémon Center. At the end of the main hallway is a single large office. From here, the cult's leader, Persephone, rules with an iron fist. To fail her is to die.

The next two levels are housing for the 900+ cultists. There is also a communal dining room, and off that, the ritual room. The bottom level is the dungeon, built to house those enemies for whom a quick death is deemed too merciful. Only one cell is currently occupied, by a sixteen-year-old girl. She's sound asleep, lying on her side on the small cot in the center of the room.

* * *

The two men outside the cell didn't give a damn about their charge. Who she was, where she was from, or why Persephone had bothered kidnapping her in the first place. None of that mattered. What did was that Persephone had given them an order, to perform a procedure on this girl that anyone else would find repugnant. And one of the two did have his doubts. But voicing them, or failing in their task in any way would mean death, and a painful one at that. Persephone rather enjoyed letting her Houndoom use Fire Blast on anyone who didn't meet her expectations.

A Pokémon materialized into the cell. Its egg-shaped body materialized first, followed by stubby arms and legs, pointed ears, and a few spikes on its back. The last thing to materialize was, somewhat strangely, its face. For a second it just stood there as a faceless purple form. Then red eyes and a giant toothy grin appeared in the center of its body. This Pokémon, Gengar, stood nearly five feet tall when fully materialized, but could change its size somewhat due to being only semi-corporeal. The temperature dropped about ten degrees as the Gengar materialized. It had stepped out of thin air, as Ghost-types will often do. It's said that these Pokémon are only thinly anchored to our world and are more than capable of spending their time in another should they choose.

This Gengar chuckled a bit as it approached the bed, as though it truly enjoyed what it was about to do. No Pokémon, except one, is truly evil, though. Gengar simply chuckle a lot, which fits their image as prankster Pokémon.

"Gengar," one of the men ordered, (this was not the one who was having second thoughts) "use Dream Eater."

The Gengar cocked its head, which was also its body, to one side, scrutinizing the girl in the bed as though to determine if she was actually sleeping. It then began to use the ordered move.

"The door is sealed," the man reported. "And I've ordered Gengar to use its Dream Eater move. It will feed of the prisoner's memories until there's nothing left."

This was, of course, a completely unnecessary report to make, but this man made it anyway. He was so nervous that he felt this strange need to state the obvious. He'd seen colleagues of his botch a procedure similar to this. By the time Persephone and her Houndoom got done with them, there'd been nothing but ash left.

A woman entered the cellblock and started down the hall. Like all the cultists, including the two men, she wore a black, hooded cloak with a red collar. But unlike the others, who always wore their hoods up, even within their own headquarters, her face and head were fully visible. Her face was a beautiful one, but cold. Her eyes were ice blue. Her face was utterly expressionless unless she was angry or about to kill someone. The lines of her cheeks and jaw were hard, as though carved from marble. The strangest thing about her was her hair. Even though she was not yet thirty, her hair was pure white.

This was Persephone, leader of the most notorious and oldest of Torren's cults. She had a reputation as arguably the evilest, most brutal person in all the Seven Regions. She truly enjoyed killing, and the longer her victim took to die, the better. Often, they lingered in agony for days before she finally cut their throats and let them bleed out. With her subordinates, she used different, more decisive methods that involved letting her Houndoom play executioner. Those who had seen someone be on the receiving end of one of its Fire Blasts said that its fire burned hot enough to reduce a living human being to a file of ash in under a minute. And no one was safe. The base was riddled with security cameras that were constantly monitoring, and broadcasting a live feed to Persephone's office. She also sometimes dressed as an ordinary cultist and walked among her people listening for dissent or talk of leaving. The rule that cultists could not lower their hoods outside of their own living quarters had been passed solely so that she could do this.

"How is the procedure coming?" she asked as she approached the two men.

"We only just started, ma'am," said one, not the one who'd given Gengar the order.

"That is not acceptable," Persephone said, reaching for the Poké Ball on her belt.

The nervous man instantly went into a panic. Fortunately, his friend had a plan. "Blame Gengar, ma'am, not us. It goes where it wants when it wants."

This was true. This Gengar was a wild Pokémon who had lived in the cave system, hiding in the shadows, since before it had been made into the Darkrai Cult's base. It had hung around after that, for some reason, and had grown close enough to a couple of the members that it was willing to take orders from them.

Persephone's hand stopped, as though she realized that her Houndoom couldn't kill a Gengar with Fire Blast.

"That thing needs to catch a Dark Pulse or two. That'd teach it who's in charge," Persephone muttered.

"Quite right, ma'am," said the nervous man, finally finding his voice again.

"We're starting the summoning in a few minutes," Persephone said. "Will you be there, or do you need to stay and monitor this?"

"We'll be there," said the nervous man, desperate not to anger her twice in one conversation.

Persephone did not respond. She simply spun on heel and strode back down the hallway. With one last glance at Gengar, the two men followed her.

* * *

 _She drifted in darkness, sometimes conscious enough to realize that her memories were slipping away, other times dead to all sensation. Fond memories winked out of existence, like when she had first learned to ride a bike without training wheels. Her parents' faces grew blurry, as though she hadn't seen them in years. Even her sense of self was starting to evaporate. Who was she, anyway?_

 _"Can you hear me?" A voice. In her head. Or was she imagining things?_

 _"You need to listen to me." Again. Insistent. Desperate, almost._

 _"I'm…listening." Forming that single coherent thought was one of the hardest things she'd ever done._

 _"Alright. I can stop what's happening to you, but you need to work with me."_

 _"O…Okay."_

 _"Do you remember your name?"_

 _Did she? There were countless memories of friends and family that she still had. Thousands of instances of people calling to her. But the faces were blurry, the words almost inaudible._

 _What was her name?_

 _Her name._

 _Her name._

 _Name._

 _A single word jumped to the forefront of her mangled, exhausted mind. Was this it?_

 _"Vale," she said._

 _"That's an unusual name. Are you sure?"_

 _Was she? It felt like a name. It felt like hers._

 _And then some of the blurry memories cleared up. She remembered her mother calling her to dinner, her father waking her up in the mornings, her friends calling her to come play._

 _"I'm…sure."_

 _"What about how old you are?"_

 _This one was easier. A memory of a birthday cake. Sixteen candles. Was this the most recent one? Then she remembered that birthday, how her dad had screwed up and bought a chocolate cake, which he knew she didn't like. That'd been her most recent birthday. February 27_ _th_ _of this year._

 _"Sixteen," she said._

 _"You sound more certain. That's good, " said the voice. "What about what you look like?"_

 _An image swam clearly into her mind. A slender girl with brown hair that fell to a few inches past her shoulders, wearing a sky blue tank top, a lightweight gray jacket, tan shorts, and sneakers._

 _"That's me," she said firmly._

 _"Well, then you need to wake up now."_

* * *

The hallway was deserted, except for Vale, who was sound asleep still, and Gengar, who had just realized that its Dream Eater was no longer having any effect and had backed away in confusion.

A small pink Pokémon materialized into the cell. It didn't enter the same way Gengar had, by essentially stepping out of thin air. This apparition left minuscule traces of energy in the air, as happens when a Pokémon uses a move, in this case Teleport.

Despite being pink, this new arrival was decidedly catlike in appearance, particularly its face. It carried its small front legs and feet close to its body, while its much larger, more rabbit-like hind legs and feet dangled freely beneath it as it floated in the air. Its body was a little over a foot in length; its tail was more than twice that, and carried in a question-mark shape.

Gengar didn't immediately notice the new arrival. In fact, it was so intent on its work that it didn't notice anything until the other Pokémon was floating right beside it.

"Gaaar! Gen-gar, Gen-gar!" it cried and ran, or rather, floated, out of the cell, passing straight through the door as it did, since it was a Ghost-type and could do that kind of thing. As luck would have it, Gengar passed straight through the door's keypad lock, shorting it out as it did and thereby opening the door. On the other side of the hallway, it passed straight through the wall and disappeared.

Vale stirred, and the Pokémon that remained move to hover over her. As soon as it did, Vale sat up, almost conking heads with the Pokémon.

"Mew?" she said. "I'm still dreaming."

" **No, you're not,** " said Mew. " **I'm really here.** "

Vale wasn't surprised to hear a Pokémon communicating telepathically. She'd read that the Legendary ones could do that. She _was_ surprised, however, to be face-to-face with a Legend.

"Isn't that what you'd say if I was dreaming?" she asked.

Mew pinched her arm with two of its tiny fingers.

"Ow!"

" **Convinced, yet?** " The voice was male, very young-sounding, but indisputably male.

"Yeah," Vale said, rubbing where he'd pinched her.

" **Good. How are your memories?** "

"Not bad, I guess. I have all the important stuff, as far as I can tell." When she looked at Mew, all his stats instantly jumped into her mind. She knew his typing, base stat ratings, weaknesses, resistances, and even his move-pool, which was the largest of any Pokémon. She was slowly but surely remembering the years she had spent studying the creatures with which humans shared the world. She knew as much as anyone did about them.

" **Well, then, can we get out of here? This place gives me the creeps. Too many Dark-types** **around.** "

* * *

 **AN: The adventure begins...**

 **So glad to finally get this up, exactly a year after I conceived of the idea. I know Mew is overused, but give him a chance. This isn't your typical innocent, carefree Mew. This Mew is badass.**

 **There's actually a whole bunch of subtle details in this chapter I want to point out. First, Vale's birth date is also the anniversary of Pokemon. I did that intentionally. Second, the intro is intended to duplicate the "world of Pokemon" intro from most of the movies.**

 **Lastly, the scene in italics in the middle of the chapter is supposed to mimic the intro scene (where you get to name your character and such) from the fan-game I based this off, Pokemon Insurgence. That scene in this game is done with someone speaking into your mind, which why it's in italics.**

 **Also, a word on the varieties of text used in this story:**

 _Italics_ : character thoughts, flashbacks, and dream-sequences

 _Italics_ and quotes: Pokemon speech, used in the few scenes with a Pokemon POV

 **Bold** and quotes: Legendary Pokemon speech. This is halfway between telepathy and ordinary speech. It is heard with the mind, but can be heard by anyone in the vicinity.

 **Bold** , _italics_ , and quotes: A variant of Legendary speech that functions as genuine telepathy and is directed at a single person

 **I know, it's a lot to remember.**


	3. Chapter 2: The Ritual

**Warning: This chapter contains a couple scenes that might be a bit...too much...for the faint of heart to handle. Scenes like this will be moderately common in this fic, although I will try to cut down on the gore. Proceed at your own risk.**

* * *

Vale slid off the cot. Mew perched himself on her right shoulder, draping his tail across her back and over the other one. He was a bit heavier than she'd expected, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. That Emolga, the one with the broken wing who'd spent the entirety of his three-week recovery time trying to ride on her head, had been heavier.

She stepped out of the now open cell and into the hallway. She looked to the left, saw that it was empty, looked to the right, saw that was also empty, then looked back to the right again just to make sure.

"This is too perfect," she pronounced.

" **No it isn't,** " Mew explained, leaving his perch to hover in front of her. " **I planned it this way. They're all at some ritual.** " As soon as he was done talking, he went right back to her shoulder.

"Exactly. Too perfect. There should still be guards." Upon feeling Mew's weight once again on her shoulder, she added, "You can basically fly. Why are you hitching a ride on me?"

" **Do you want me to leave?** "

"No."

" **Then don't tell me what to do. That's why the Separation happened in the first place, you know. Because some mortals got it into their heads that they could order around Legends like any other Pokémon.** "

"If you don't like us so much, then why are you here?"

Mew apparently didn't have an answer for that, because he didn't say anything.

"Okay. Don't tell me. That works too."

* * *

Vale started down the hallway. Mew let her walk in the wrong direction for about three minutes before telling her so. He didn't say anything until she remarked on the sheer length of the hallway, at which point he chimed in with a snarky " **That's because you're going the wrong way.** "

Vale promptly spun around, just barely resisting the urge to smack Mew in the face.

The pair finally reached the door out of the cellblock, where they found that there were indeed still guards. The pair had been lounging against the wall, complaining about missing whatever ritual they were missing. Once they saw Vale step through the door, they leapt up, releasing a Houndoom and a Shiftry.

Mew took to the air, floating up toward the ceiling. The two guards faltered momentarily, surprised to see a Legend, and torn between running and, no doubt, trying to capture him.

Their moment of hesitation was all Mew needed. " **Dazzling Gleam,** " he called, letting loose a blinding light. Vale barely looked away in time.

When she looked back, the Shiftry Trainer was recalling his Pokémon, while the Houndoom was still very much on its feet.

"Dark Pulse," its Trainer ordered.

The Houndoom shot a wave of pitch-black energy from its body.

" **Protect,** " Mew said, sounding almost bored as he erected a wall of white energy between himself and the incoming attack.

"Dark Pulse, again."

" **Bit of a one-trick Ponyta, aren't you? Disable.** " Mew snapped his fingers. The Trainer snarled in frustration when he realized his Pokémon could no longer use its best move. He faltered, taking just a little bit too long to call the next move.

" **Aura Sphere,** " Mew said. He formed a ball of red-brown energy between his hands and sent it at the Houndoom, knocking it into its Trainer. Both of them were now unconscious.

The other cultist took off down the hallway, shouting "Prisoner escape."

Mew fired another Aura Sphere at his retreating back. It connected, knocking him to the ground, and out cold.

" **Let's hope no one heard that,** " Mew said.

Vale rolled her eyes at his joke. Of course someone had heard it. "Did you have to hit him so hard?" she asked.

" **That wasn't hard. Barely half power.** "

"Half power on a move that strong is more than enough to kill," Vale pointed out. All but the weakest Pokémon attacks were capable of killing a human if they hit one, which was why having a battle, even a friendly one, without some form of regulation was technically illegal. Even in crime-ridden Torren, violating that rule was the number-one cause of death among young Trainers.

" **If you're that worried, go take his pulse. And his robe. You'll need a disguise.** "

* * *

Vale quickly found out two things. First, the man was indeed alive. Second, he was quite a bit taller—and broader—than she was, and consequentially, his robe was too big.

"This hood is never going to stay on," she said, after putting on the robe. "Why can't you just Teleport us out?"

" **I can't do that without knowing exactly where I'm going,** " Mew explained, as he slipped through the hole in the hood and took his place back on Vale's shoulder. " **I got in by simply looking for you. Getting out isn't as easy. And even if I did know where I was going, Teleporting with a passenger takes a lot of energy. I'd be pretty useless afterwards.** "

"Great. Just great."

Mew Psychically lifted the two men, one of them now wearing nothing but a t-shirt and shorts, and stashed them in a conveniently placed storage closet. As much as the little Legend got on Vale's nerves, she had to admit he was powerful, to lift two people and open a door all at the same time. She'd never seen a Psychic-type do that much at once before. He asked her to close the door manually afterwards, but he didn't sound at all winded when he did.

Once that was taken care of, Vale opened the door at the end of the hallway, revealing a flight of stairs. She climbed up and pushed open the door at the top.

And found herself face-to-face with another cultist.

"What are you doing down here?"

 _Oh, crap. Ohcrapohcrapohcrap,_ she panicked internally. _He knows. Somehow he figured out I'm not one of them._

"Why aren't you at the ritual?"

Vale relaxed instantly, breathing a sigh of relief that she hoped to Arceus hadn't been audible.

"I was going there now. Why aren't you at the ritual?" she ad-libbed.

"I'm going down to get those last two guards. Kid's probably just a shell now. No need to leave any guards in the cellblock." He laughed.

Vale joined in, in the name of maintaining her disguise, but inwardly she wanted to vomit.

 _Oh boy,_ she thought. _I am so screwed._

He brushed past her, and as he did, she caught an all-too-familiar scent from his gloves. She felt her stomach clench.

Spores. Produced by Shroomish and a few other Grass-types. Used primarily in sleep-aids, but occasionally as a sedative.

 _She was walking through the Shade Woods well on her way to Telnor Town, an easy trip to make in one day. She had just passed a small grove she knew was home to a family of Deerling and Sawsbuck, when she got the distinct feeling that someone was watching her._

 _She spun around and noticed a man in a black robe watching her. He was just standing, casually, under one of the trees. That was more than enough to creep her out._

 _She broke into a run, but before she'd gone more than a few steps, she crashed into another robed man, who had just stepped from the trees in front of her._

 _He grabbed her wrist before she could twist away and held on. She jerked her arm, thrusting her hand toward him, one of the first self-defense moves she'd ever learned. Unfortunately, he must have expected it, because he held on._

 _Vale twisted her wrist, desperately trying to break free. She didn't immediately realize where the other man was until he grabbed her from behind and clamped his hand over her nose and mouth. She caught the distinct smell of Spores on his gloves before she blacked out._

Trying to ignore the flashback she'd just had, Vale climbed up the last step and emerged into a decent sized antechamber, the only part of the base she'd yet seen that didn't make her feel claustrophobic.

"What are you doing?" said a voice.

 _Oh, come on,_ Vale thought, as she turned to see yet another cultist striding toward her.

"Uh, I'm lost," she said.

"Oh, one of the new recruits, ay?" he remarked. "What poverty-filled hellhole did you join to get out of?" He paused. "Never mind. I don't want to know. Down the hall, to the left." He pointed over his shoulder.

No doubt he was pointing her toward the ritual room, the last place she wanted to go. But he was still standing in the antechamber watching her, leaving her with little choice but to follow his instructions.

As she walked down the hall, she couldn't help but think about the man's "poverty-filled hellhole" comment. Torren was not just crime-ridden; it was poverty-ridden too. Most families struggled to put food on the table. The cities were particularly bad. A disturbingly high number of inner-city kids ran off to join the cults, seeing them as the only way out. Once there had been other methods, like competitive Pokémon Training. But the League had packed up and left Torren completely 20 years ago. There was no longer any profit to be made in Training, no matter how skilled you were. Ironically, the League had left because of the cults, because the government had deemed it no longer safe for kids to travel around and challenge Gyms. With no money to be made in Torren, the League, always a for-profit organization first and foremost, had been gone in a week.

She hesitated outside the ritual room, seriously considering turning around and running for the exit. She had no desire to see whatever was going on in there. But her mind was made up for her when someone inside the room grabbed her sleeve and hauled her inside.

"What are you doing? It's already started." The voice was female, young, and terrified.

"What exactly is going on?" Vale asked.

"Beats me. Persephone said something about trying to summon a Legend."

That would never work, Vale knew. Others had tried, in the 200 years since the Separation. All had failed. The Legends wanted nothing to do with mortals anymore. On the other hand, there was a Legend sitting on her shoulder…

Vale looked forward, trying to discern what was going on. It wasn't easy, but she could clearly make out the white-haired woman standing at the front of the room.

"So that's Persephone," she muttered. Vale knew what the Darkrai Cult's leader looked like. She'd seen the woman once, leering out of an electronic wanted poster that offered a whopping 100,000 Poké for information leading to her capture.

"You should have met her when you were recruited. She's _terrifying_."

"So I gathered," Vale muttered.

There was suddenly a flurry of motion to the right side of the room, as two cultists dragged a third forward. They pulled him to the front of the room, practically carrying him as he fought to get away. They dumped him to the floor, in the center of…was that a summoning circle?

Vale almost laughed aloud. Summoning circles dated back to the first few centuries after the Joining, to the days when everyone thought Pokémon were demons and a few men who fancied themselves warlocks decided to try summoning them.

"P…please, ma'am," the cultist begged. "I have served you loyally for years…"

"And now you will continue to do so," Persephone interrupted.

She pulled a book from her sleeve and flipped to a page near the middle, where she began reading, her raised voice not quite drowning out the terrified sobs of the man on the floor.

"Darkrai, Lord of Darkness, God of Nightmares. I offer you a sacrifice, this mortal soul, to be bound in your realm of terror for all time."

The man let loose a final terrified scream, and, to Vale's shock, the circle activated.

Black light rose up from the circle (if something black could be described as light) and the man vanished. Then, a wave of pure darkness rushed outward as none other than Darkrai himself materialized in the center of the circle.

Vale's blood ran cold. Darkrai was the boogeyman many parents used to frighten their kids into behaving. Hers never had, but that hadn't kept her from being terrified of the Nightmare Pokémon, especially after hearing the stories that some people never woke up from the horrible nightmares he gave.

Persephone went down on one knee, and all the other cultists in the room followed suit. Vale hesitated for a second, until the girl standing beside her grabbed her and pulled her down.

"Lord Darkrai," Persephone said. "You honor us with your presence."

Darkrai spoke. " **This is not the offering you promised me.** "

" My lord, I…"

" **My patience grows thin, Persephone.** "

Vale had kept her head down until that point, not wanting to look at the Nightmare Pokémon, but at that, she glanced up, just in time for Darkrai to look past Persephone and straight at her. One of his piercing green eyes was hidden under his white "hair," but the other seemed to bore straight into her soul.

Vale didn't even have time to panic over the possibility that he knew who she was and was going to inform Persephone of that before he Teleported away.

 _What offering was he talking about?_ she wondered, almost saying it aloud before catching herself.

Persephone looked flustered up at the front of the room. She turned and strode towards the door, the crowd of cultists parting before her.

"I'm going to go check on the prisoner," she announced. "You will accompany me." She pointed to the left of the door.

 _She's pointing to the girl next to me, right?_ Vale thought. She looked again and realized that that did not seem to be the case.

"Me, ma'am?" she asked, wondering how the heck she was ever going to get out of here if stuff like this kept happening.

"Yes," Persephone snapped. "Or are you deaf as well as perpetually tardy?"

"No, ma'am."

"Good."

* * *

Vale followed Persephone down to the cellblock. At first, she'd wondered if maybe she could sneak away, but that soon proved to be impossible. With the ritual completed, the base was once again swarming with cultists. So she followed. And before long they were standing outside a certain cell.

Persephone was absolutely livid when she saw it empty, as well as more than a little confused. She kept muttering "How?" as she inspected the interior of the cell, fingering the sheets, even looking under the cot. Vale stood with her back pressed against the wall, as far from the white-haired woman as she could get.

Vale was considering trying to edge her way down the hallway, when two men came running from the other direction. She noticed that one of them was not wearing a robe and realized they were the two guards from earlier.

"Ma'am, the prisoner has…" one of them started but stopped once he saw the empty cell. "I see you've already realized that."

"How," Persephone asked, "did a little slip of a girl manage to get past the two of you?"

"Ma'am, she had a…"

He probably been about to say "Legendary," but Persephone cut him off.

"I don't care. You know the penalty for failing me." She grabbed a Pokeball from her belt and released her Houndoom.

The two men were standing, seemingly paralyzed with fear.

"Fire Blast," Persephone ordered.

Vale opened her mouth to cry a warning, but no sound came out. The Blast struck the two men, who didn't even have time to cry out. One minute there were two men standing there; the next there were two piles of ash.

Persephone calmly returned her Pokémon. "Remember this, girl," she said, "and think on it the next time you decide to arrive late to…"

Persephone broke off suddenly. She looked at the two ash piles, then at Vale, then back to the ash. Something flickered in her eyes.

In two strides, she had crossed the hallway and grabbed Vale by the arm. Mew, guessing what was about to happen, hurriedly turned himself invisible.

Persephone threw the girl to the floor. "Well, well. What have we here?" she said.

Vale realized that her hood had fallen.

 _Shit,_ she thought.

* * *

 **AN: Vale's escape from the base doesn't exactly go smoothly...**

 **So, here we have some character development. Persephone is completely heartless, although not all her followers take after her in every respect. Mew is snarky-ness given form. Also, Darkrai, who is going to end up being very important to the story, but not for a while.**

 **In writing this fic, I really wanted to give Pokemon something of an epic fantasy spin. Check out the background information I uploaded to my deviantART for some more detail regarding the history and lore of my AU. Summoning circles are in the fan-game I based this on, but without any explanation, so I gave them some.**

 **As to what offering Darkrai was referring to, that won't be answered for a very long time, although it will be hinted at in the next chapter.**

 **Also, the first battle scene, and the first of many times we'll get to see a Legend being totally badass. A couple notes regarding battles involving Legends:**  
 **I wanted Legends in this fic to be a cut above regular Pokemon, as befits their status as borderline gods. EVs and IVs don't exist per se in this world, because I couldn't figure out how to make them work. Pokemon still have the equivalent of them, however. Legends have the equivalent of max EVs and perfect IVs in every stat. Moreover, while the level system doesn't technically exist, either, there's an equivalent in the form of how Pokemon naturally get stronger the more they battle, and only theoretically does it cap out at the equivalent of Level 100. Legends' equivalent levels are quite a bit higher than that. Essentially, any time a Legend, while fighting at full power, uses a super-effective move on a non-Legendary opponent, the one-shot is practically guaranteed, unless the target of the move is something particularly bulky, like Ferrothorn.**


	4. Chapter 3: Escape

**Note: To anyone who's been reading this story, but hasn't checked out of background information on my deviantART page, you really need to do that. That information is going to become very important in the next couple chapters, and I'm not going to stop the action to provide a full-blown explanation.**

* * *

Persephone pulled a gun from somewhere in the folds of her robe. Vale's eyes widened when she saw the weapon, not from fear so much as surprise. While firearm usage was a little more common in Torren than in the other regions, it was still quite rare for anyone to carry a gun if they had Pokémon. Vale had never even seen one in person.

"Get up," she ordered, leveling her weapon at the girl on the ground. "And take that damned robe off."

Vale complied, careful not to make any sudden moves. Once she was standing, Persephone grabbed her by her shirt and pulled her close, until the business end of the pistol was less than an inch from her nose.

"How did you get out of that cell? Who helped you?" Persephone demanded, her finger twitching on the trigger.

Vale thought frantically. _What do I do? If I tell her the truth, she'll either think I'm lying and probably shoot me, or go after Mew, and I can't let that happen. It's people like her who caused the Separation and stole the rest of our connection to the supernatural. I can't lie, either. If she thinks there's a traitor in the cult, she'll just kill them. And I couldn't point her to a specific cultist anyway. I couldn't name a name, and everyone looks the same under those blasted robes._

Vale decided the best thing to do was keep her mouth shut.

"Not talking, huh. Well, I can fix that," Persephone said. Vale thought she also heard her mutter "Good thing the circle works only once a day."

Mew appeared directly behind her. Vale just barely succeeded in keeping her relief at seeing him from showing up on her face.

"You want to know who helped me?" she asked. "He's right behind you."

Persephone turned and barely had time to be surprised at seeing a Legendary before a Psychically enhanced punch slammed into her jaw. She staggered and fell.

" **Run, Vale,** " Mew ordered, somewhat unnecessarily, since Vale was already running for the end of the hall.

Persephone, amazingly still conscious, leapt to her feet, whipped out a communicator, and yelled an order into it to lock down the cellblock.

 _Oh, crap,_ Vale thought. A heavy steel barrier was slowly dropping down, blocking off the hallway in front of her. As she sped up, desperate to get past it before it dropped al the way, she noticed that it seemed to have gotten stuck.

She glanced over her shoulder on a hunch, stopping as she did. Sure enough, Mew was there, front paws glowing, Psychically holding back the gate.

" **Go!** " he called. " **Don't worry about me.** "

Vale dropped to the ground and rolled under the gate, which dropped the last bit as soon as she was through. She got up and looked around. She was in the hallway just outside the main cellblock, and Mew was nowhere to be seen.

 _Did he just get himself caught? The Darkrai Cult with access to a Legend—well, a second Legend, on top of whatever Darkrai's been providing them—that's a scary thought._

Vale started down the hall, wondering how she was supposed to get out of here on her own when everyone in the base was no doubt looking for her.

She reached the stairs at the end, and for a second just stood looking up at them.

 _Probably just find another one of those barriers at the top, but I suppose I have to try._

She put her foot on the first step, and, the moment she did, something pink materialized in front of her. Startled, she stumbled back, falling off the stair and nearly landing flat on her back.

"Mew," she acknowledged. "I was worried you'd gotten…"

" **Caught? Oh, please,** " Mew interrupted. " **They can keep dreaming.** " He flicked his tail toward the cellblock. " **Do you know how hard it is…** "

He vanished.

" **…to contain something that can Teleport?** " he finished from directly behind her.

She jumped. "Did you have to do that?"

" **Yes.** "

"Jerk."

" **You were escaping?** "

"Right. Escape now, argue later. Let's do this."

* * *

Persephone sat, fuming, trapped in the cellblock by her own security barrier. She ticked off the seconds it took someone to come down and deactivate it and, as they turned into minutes, resolved to make _someone_ pay for every single one.

But still, a Legendary, in her base. Darkrai flatly refused to share his power with her, no matter how devoutly she served him. If she could catch this one…well, no one would be able to stand in her way, not even the Augur, fool that he was.

Of course, anyone who'd studied history knew that Mew was almost impossible to get even a glimpse of. The only Trainer to ever catch him only accomplished it because Mew let him. She was fairly certain she could figure out a way to keep from Teleporting once she had him. The problem would be catching him in the first place. She wasn't at all confident that her team could defeat a Legend.

The beeping of her communicator interrupted her planning.

"What?" she snarled into it.

"Checking in, ma'am," said the voice of one of her lieutenants.

"You have her, then?" _You'd better._

"No, ma'am."

"Then why, exactly, are you wasting my time?" she snapped.

"I thought you'd want to be kept posted."

"You can do that, or you can come down here and _deactivate the damned security barrier so I can run the search myself!_ "

"Oh, is that where you are?"

 _Idiot,_ she thought.

"Get down here!"

"On my way." Persephone cracked a smile at the fear in his voice. "Can I ask a question?"

 _What now?_ "You can ask. Getting an answer is another matter."

"This kid is rapidly becoming more trouble than she's worth. Why don't we just knock her on the head and dump the body somewhere?"

"As much as I would like to do exactly that, the consequences would be…steep…if we did. Which you should be well aware of."

"What's so special about _this_ brat, I wonder? There's a whole lot more in Torren who'd be missed less than her."

"Your guess is as good as mine," she admitted. "Now get back to _finding_ her."

* * *

Vale found the last thing she'd expected in what had looked like an unused storage closet down the hall from the ritual room. She'd ducked into it to avoid a group of cultists coming down the hall in the other direction. The closet turned out to be far from unused. First off, it was quite a bit too big to be considered a closet. Second, it was full of what looked like trophies taken from the cult's other victims, some of them splattered with a brown substance that looked an awful lot like blood. Third, one of those trophies was her backpack.

The biggest surprise, however, was that all her stuff was still in it. Sketchbooks, assorted non-perishable foods, a bottle or two of water, still unopened, tent and sleeping bag, just in case.

"What are the odds?" she thought aloud.

" **Don't ask a Legendary about odds,** " Mew advised.

"Noted."

Vale swung the pack over her shoulder. Once her stuff was back were it belonged, with her, she opened the door a crack and poked her head out.

And locked eyes with the two cultists who'd just come around the corner.

"Crap," she whispered. "Any advice?"

" **Run,** " Mew said. " **I'll cover you.** "

She darted out of the room.

Mew's definition of "covering her" turned out to be, once again, using Dazzling Gleam without giving her any warning. It was effective, though. Vale managed to look away in time. The cultists didn't.

Vale dashed past the two blinded men, turned the corner, and took off down the hall at a dead sprint. She shot up the stairs at the end. A few cultists stepped out of the rooms along the hall as she reached the top of the stairs. Many of them had their hoods askew, as though they'd been sleeping.

Any lingering fatigue quickly vanished when they saw Vale. A couple of them pulled guns. Others reached for Pokéballs.

All, however, promptly collapsed as Mew shot a Thunder Wave down the hall. Vale walked down this one, looking periodically side-to-side at the paralyzed cultists and trying not to giggle.

The next hall was deserted.

Vale took a long look at the empty hall.

"Trap," she pronounced.

" **Miracle Eye,** " Mew said with a wave of his hand. " **I don't see anything,** " he added after a second.

Vale got down that hall without incident, but her suspicions only increased when the next hallway was equally uneventful, as well as the one after that. A few more hallways and a staircase followed, all without seeing a single cultist.

" **This should be the top floor. We're almost there,** " Mew said.

"But, where is everyone?"

Vale soon got her answer. She walked to the end of that hallway, then turned, and stopped dead.

Persephone was waiting for her. And she wasn't alone. Half a dozen cultists, maybe more, flanked their leader. Persephone herself looked murderous. Vale had read stories several times where the eyes of a particularly angry person were described as blazing. Persephone's didn't blaze. They froze.

Vale glanced over her shoulder, looking for a way out. She didn't see that, but she did see two other things, either of them good. First, Mew was nowhere to be seen, having either turned invisible or Teleported away. Second, a dozen more cultists had just come up behind her, boxing her in.

"Where is he?" Persephone demanded.

Vale's worst hunches had just been confirmed. Persephone was now after Mew.

"Beats me," Vale said. "I'm not his boss."

Persephone pulled a Pokéball from her belt and released a Bisharp.

"Use Guillotine," she ordered.

 _What is she doing?_ Vale thought as the Bisharp leapt towards her, the blades on its arms elongating. _That's a one-hit knock-out move. Terrible accuracy, but enough to kill a Pokémon if it hits._

Mew materialized in the Bisharp's path, Protect shield already up. The Bisharp hit the shield and stumbled backwards, barely conscious. It was Protect, not Counter, but Vale supposed that hitting a Protect with the full force of an OHKO move couldn't have felt very good.

"Too easy," Persephone said, and then Vale understood.

"They played us," she muttered. Then louder, "So what happens now?"

"The only thing that can," Persephone replied. "Hand over Mew and surrender."

"What part of 'I'm not his boss' didn't you understand?" Vale retorted, at the same moment Mew said " **I serve no mortal, especially you.** "

"You have no other choice."

Vale's mind was racing. _Is there another way out of this? If everyone here let their Pokémon out at once, I don't think even Mew could handle them all. And I can't help._

The standoff ended when one cultist standing with Persephone got impatient and threw a Pokéball at Mew, and then several things happened at once. First, Mew dodged the ball without even bothering to Teleport. Second, Persephone grabbed the man's wrist and twisted, screaming "Idiot!" Third, Vale caught the ball. Fourth, Mew flew up towards the ceiling and unleashed the strongest Dazzling Gleam Vale had ever seen.

A normal Dazzling Gleam, while a multi-target move, was not a multi-directional move and would not hit all potential targets if they were standing too far apart. This Dazzling Gleam was a ring of blinding light that shot out from Mew in all directions. Vale anticipated what he planned as soon as she saw him starting to rise and hit the floor, covering her eyes.

She still saw the flash of light, and when she uncovered her eyes she saw stars for a few seconds. Once her vision cleared, the first thing she saw was Mew, lying on the floor.

She rushed to him and scooped him up in her arms. "Are you alright?" she asked.

" **I will be. That took more energy than I counted on.** "

"It was also amazing!"

" **Thank you. It won't last very long, though. I designed that as a way to cover myself while I Teleported away from an enemy. I never guessed I'd have to use it to cover a more conventional escape.** "

"We should run," Vale agreed.

She carefully stepped around the blinded cultists. All but a few had been knocked out by the force that must have come with the light. Dazzling Gleam was an offensive move, after all. It wasn't Flash, which only blinded.

Persephone made a blind grab for her as she passed, but Vale made it through and took off down the hall. She turned the corner, and, as she ran towards the end of that hall she realized the there was no turn. It was a dead end.

She said as much to Mew.

" **Miracle Eye,** " he said. Then, after a moment, " **It's just an Illusion. Keep going.** "

Vale complied. She shot through the hidden door, or, more accurately, hole, at the end of the hall.

And promptly discovered that there was quite a steep, and very rocky, slope directly on the other side.

She slid down it, Mew expending just enough Psychic power to keep her from falling. Once at the bottom, she looked back at the hole she'd come from, only to discover that, if she hadn't known what was there, she would have thought the rocks behind her perfectly ordinary.

Looking to the sky, she guessed the time was within an hour of noon and breathed a sigh of relief. The Augur wouldn't be arriving in Telnor Town for another couple of hours. She still had time, time to get there before he did and seize her chance to give him a piece of her mind over the state of the region. She might be cutting it close though.

Fortunately, this was the Shade Woods, her stomping grounds since she was a little girl. The trip from her house to Telnor was one she'd made countless times in her life. Provided she could figure out quickly where she was in relation to her usual route, she could get there easily.

* * *

Persephone stood in her office, watching and re-watching the security footage of Mew's parting shot Dazzling Gleam. The _power_ contained in that little body! If she were able to harness that power to further her own purposes, she could take over the region. She already had a couple of people drawing up schematics for a device that could stop a Pokémon from Teleporting. But that alone would not be enough to keep him contained.

Her most pressing concern, she reminded herself, was currently recapturing the girl. Simply chasing after her would accomplish little; she would need a better stratagem than that to catch the little twerp and ensure that she _stayed_ caught.

She called in her lieutenant. "We're all ready to go after her, ma'am," he reported when he entered.

"No," she said.

"Begging your pardon, ma'am, but why?"

"Because, in case it slipped through your thick skull, she had a _Legend_ with her. We'll need a strategy."

"What?"

"You said you knew where she lived?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Pay her parents a visit. Set a trap, for when she comes home."

* * *

Vale found her way to Telnor Town more quickly than she had counted on. It had taken only about an hour to find her route and get to the town. She supposed it should scare her to know that there was a cult headquarters so close to a town as small as Telnor, but even this notoriously brutal cult had never been known to attack a settlement.

" **This is where I leave you,** " Mew said, as the town came into view through the trees.

"What?" Vale asked. "You're just going to walk out on me?"

" **Vale, I'm…well, I'm me. Mew, the Progenitor of Pokémon, the Mirage.** "

Vale chuckled a little to herself as Mew rattled off a couple of his titles. Every Legendary had a string of them, mostly invented by priests in the days when every single one of them had a sect of worshipers. Vale had always thought it unnecessarily grandiose, but the one thing all the accounts of that era agreed on was that the Legendary priests had loved their ceremonies and formalities.

" **I'll only attract attention, especially now, and by extension, I'll attract Persephone and her agents.** "

"You're right. It's just," she paused. "Torren's Public Enemy Number 1 now has a personal interest in me. How am I supposed to deal with this without you?"

" **I'm not leaving for good. I'll keep an eye on you. It's just…I was violating the Edict the moment I Teleported into that cell.** "

"The blasted Edict," Vale muttered, sitting down on a tree root. "Why did he have to pass it?"

" **He had no real choice. The actions of Team Flare almost killed two Legends. You know that.** "

She did. She loved history, especially those episodes that involved Legends, and, for about a year of junior high, had fixated on the why and how of the Edict of Separation.

"I know," she said, and then had another thought. "Are you going to get in trouble because of me?"

" **I don't think so.** " He was gone before she could respond, hurriedly Teleporting away. Vale turned and saw the reason for his rushed exit.

A boy a couple years younger than her was coming through the trees. He was slightly shorter than her, with noticeably uncombed slivery-blond hair. His eyes were hazel. His clothes probably should have been replaced years ago: his cargo shorts were covered in dust and dirt and had several holes, as though his parents couldn't be bothered to wash or mend them, and his NImbasa City souvenir t-shirt was too big. His sneakers had probably been white or gray once. They were now closer to brown and looked to be falling apart.

"Hey," he greeted her cheerfully. "Vale, right? I remember you from school."

 _I went to school with this kid?_ she thought. She certainly didn't remember him. _Well, I suppose I always paid more attention to my books than my classmates._

"You do?" she asked.

"How could I not remember someone with a name as unusual as yours?"

"Good point, I guess."

"Hey, don't laugh, but did you see Mew out there in the woods?"

"What?" _Oh, crap. He noticed._

"Yeah, I know. Stupid, right? But I swear I saw him. A bright pink Pokémon, hovering right next to you."

"Nobody's seen a Legend in 200 years," she pointed out. They're not coming back."

* * *

 **AN: Vale finally escapes, but Persephone's not willing to let her go so easily...**

 **I know this isn't the best chapter. Most of it is freaking dungeon-crawling, and in the Darkrai Cult's base no less, which even in the game is pretty uninteresting in its design.**

 **A few things. First, It has come to my attention that this story does not have a disclaimer. So here goes. Pokemon is owned by Nintendo GameFreak. Vale is my OC, but every other human character belongs to thesuzerain.**

 **Second, in planning out this fic, I did a lot of thinking regarding secondary effects of moves and how they might work out of battle, things like Dazzling Gleam blinding people, and Miracle Eye, as demonstrated in this chapter, being used to detect traps and hidden enemies and identify illusions. Also, as a general trend in this story, Legends are fairly into improvising, using moves in ways and for purposes that they weren't originally intended, things like Mew's omni-directional Dazzling Gleam.**

 **Third, a little bit of background that the player would probably have by this point, so it's not a spoiler. There are five cults in Torren. The Darkrai Cult, you've met. Then there's the Abyssal Cult, worshippers of Kyogre, who will make an appearance fairly soon. The Infernal Cult, who I assume worship Groudon, play barely any role in the game as it stands now. The Sky Cult worships Rayquaza, and they'll be making an appearance later on. The last "cult" is called Perfection. They're concerned more with science than religion, but perform their research without adhering to any sort of ethical standard.**

 **Also one last note regarding Persephone's Bisharp. In case it wasn't clear, what she's doing here is trying to lure Mew out. She picked Guillotine as the move to use for shock value and because of a (correct) hunch that Mew wouldn't risk Vale's life by gambling that the move would miss.**


	5. Chapter 4: The Augur

"I'm Damien, by the way," he said as they started walking toward the town. "I assume you were coming in to see the Augur."

"Yeah," Vale said, only partially paying attention to the discussion at hand.

"You're cutting it a little close."

"I got a little sidetracked." _Okay, so how am I going to do this? Do I do it directly or indirectly? Privately or publicly?_

"Do you have a gift for him?"

That snapped Vale back to reality. "A what?"

"Everyone in town is getting him gifts. To show our gratitude."

"I don't see very much to be grateful for."

"You shouldn't talk like that. He's done so much for Torren."

"Like what?"

Damien didn't answer.

"Didn't think so." _What is it with this cult of personality the Augur's got going?_

They stepped out of the woods and entered the town.

"Damien!" yelled a voice. Vale spun and saw a blond woman in a paint-stained t-shirt and shorts walking up.

"Aunt Eleanor," Damien said, grinning innocently.

 _Aunt?_ Vale thought. This woman looked to be only a few years older than Damien.

"Damien. Do you have your gift for the Augur yet?"

"Oops," Damien said, looking down at his sneakers.

"Can't you do anything right? He'll be here in just a couple hours."

"Well, I would have a gift…but I don't know what to get him."

"Get him a nice rock from Telnor Cave," Vale joked. "That's what I would get him."

"Vale, you're a genius!" Damien said.

"I am?"

"There have got to be some cool gems or evolution stones or something in there."

"Absolutely not, young man," Eleanor said.

"Why not?"

"It's too dangerous."

"Not if he had a Pokémon," Vale pointed out.

"Damien is too irresponsible to be a Trainer."

"How do you know?"

"He's a failure. Just look at him."

"How can you talk about your nephew that way?"

"Don't tell me how to raise a child. "

 _I really didn't want to get involved in this, but I can't just leave the poor kid in this situation. He needs to gain some confidence, and Training is a good way to do that._

"I've had a little experience with Pokémon. I'll go with him."

Eleanor thought for a second. "Fine," she said. "But if anything happens to him, I blame you." She strode off.

The next thing Vale knew, Damien had thrown his arms around her and was whispering, "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you."

"Uh, any time."

"Come on. Professor Sylvan's lab is this way," he said, tugging her down the street.

* * *

Telnor Town wasn't particularly large, and getting to the lab took only a few minutes, but that was long enough for Vale to see just how excited the residents were over the Augur's visit. Every building in town was decorated in some way. Garlands were strung between the lampposts. A hand-painted sign saying "Welcome" was placed above the door to the town hall.

The lab itself was a modest little building. It reminded Vale of the pictures she'd seen of the lab where the world-renowned Professor Oak had done his research. It was only one story, no bigger than the average house. In fact, it didn't look very different from a house at all. It was built from red brick, with blue shutters on the two front windows.

After walking inside, Vale realized that it wasn't a matter of the lab being home-y. Professor Sylvan simply worked out of his house.

The bell on the door chimed as they stepped inside.

"Who's there?" called a voice. "Come on back."

They did, passing through a small kitchen full of unwashed dishes, a living room almost completely taken over by research notes and books, and finally into the lab proper, located in the basement.

They were still on the stairs when they heard it, a hushed conversation.

"I already told you. I won't take them."

"Sylvan, please. I don't want any unnecessary deaths, and these Pokémon are—let's face it—freaks. No Trainer will want them, and if you don't take them, my organization will be forced to resort to euthanasia."

Vale was fuming. _What is he talking about? What kind of Trainer would euthanize a Pokémon?_

She walked down the remaining stairs and turned the corner into the lab intent on seeing who could be so callous.

She recognized Professor Sylvan, as she'd met him once before. He was a man in his late 30s, with untidy black hair, glasses, and skin somewhat paler than usual, probably as a result of spending so much time indoors doing research.

The other man was Sylvan's polar opposite. He was quite tall, with meticulously combed black hair and gray eyes. He wore an immaculately tailored suit, and his face was completely emotionless, in a way that reminded Vale of Persephone.

"Vale?" Professor Sylvan asked when he saw her. "Long time, no see."

"Hello, Professor," she greeted. "I've come for a starter. So has Damien." She pointed over her shoulder to where Damien was standing, practically hugging the wall. And Vale could understand why. The cold gaze of the other man was unnerving her as well.

"Well," the professor said. "As you know, I usually give Eevee to new Trainers, but…" He glanced at the other man, who nodded. "…today, you have four choices."

He picked up three Pokéballs off the lab table. "In addition to the Eevee, you may choose from among these three Pokémon."

Three Pokémon materialized on the floor of the lab. The first was a dark pink Bulbasaur speckled with purple. The bulb on its back was green, spotted with purple and dark pink. A small purple mushroom on a green stem grew from the right side of its head.

The second was a Charmander colored the bleached white of old bones. Its tail flame was purple, rather than orange, and its black eyes and wide, jagged mouth gave its head a skull-like appearance.

The third was a Squirtle that was dark brown where most were blue. Its eyes were white, and its face partially hidden behind a mask. What looked like bits of athletic tape were wrapped around each of its wrists.

"I've never seen Pokémon like that before," Damien said, coming up to get a closer look. "What are they?"

"Delta Pokémon," Vale whispered.

"What?"

"You haven't heard of them?" Professor Sylvan asked.

"A couple decades before the League left Torren, a few scientists started experimenting with the genes that determine a Pokémon's Type," Vale started.

"And they succeeded in creating Pokémon with altered Typings. For a couple years, it wasn't uncommon to see things like Water-type Dragonite in Torren," Professor Sylvan added.

"Then the government banned their creation on ethical reasons," Vale finished.

"Of course, some groups are still making them." Vale almost jumped. The other man in the room had spoken up.

 _He brought them,_ she thought. _That means…_

"You're from Perfection, aren't you?" she asked. He nodded.

"How dare you!" she cried. "You have no right to play god."

"Wait, you're a cultist?" Damien asked in horror.

"That's not the right word to describe Perfection, Damien," Vale corrected, having calmed down slightly. "They're scientists, not fanatics."

"So what do you choose?" asked Professor Sylvan.

"I am not using a Pokémon made by a monster like you," Vale snapped at the man.

"Vale, it's not the Pokémon's fault," Professor Sylvan pointed out.

"What are you thinking?" Vale asked Damien.

"I don't know. I mean, they are cool-looking, but I don't know if I want to use a Pokémon made by a cultist. And Eevee's cool too. They can evolve into so many things, but I don't know if I'd want to evolve it. I feel like there'd be some kind of reward for not evolving it."

Vale rolled her eyes. _Word to the wise, Damien. As a competitive Trainer, you want the strongest Pokémon you can get. And Eevee just don't cut it._

"I can't decide. I guess I'll just do whatever you do. If you get a Delta, so will I. If you stick with the Eevee, I will too."

Vale thought. _What_ do _I want to do? I definitely don't want to use a Pokémon made by a cultist any more than Damien does. And I_ really _don't want to Train a Pokémon whose very existence is an abomination against everything I was taught. But do I want to Train an Eevee more? I don't know if I do. I mean, it's so overdone. And these Pokémon need love too. Professor Sylvan won't have any trouble finding Trainers for his Eevee, but the Deltas might never get another chance._

"I guess I'll take a Delta," she said, somewhat reluctantly. "What are their Typings?"

"The Bulbasaur is Fairy/Psychic, the Charmander is Ghost/Dragon, and the Squirtle is Dark/Fighting," explained the Perfection man, raising his eyebrows in surprise at Vale's sudden change of heart.

"I guess I'll take one too," Damien said.

"Which one do you want?" asked Professor Sylvan.

 _Let's see. The Squirtle has a decent Typing, but I don't want a double weakness right from the beginning. Dragon is always a good offensive Typing, as is Ghost, but…_

Vale was snapped out of her thoughts by the Bulbasaur pawing at her leg.

She looked down at it. "Bulba," it said, as it reared up and placed its front paws against her thigh.

"I think this one's already picked me," she said, scooping up the Bulbasaur.

"I want the Charmander," Damien said quickly.

"Well, if that's settled, I'll just need to register the two of you and get you hooked up with the standard Trainer package."

* * *

"I don't see what the point of registering us as Trainers is if there's no League Challenge to participate in," Vale muttered as they left town.

"Well, it's the law, isn't it?" Damien asked.

"I suppose there is that."

The "standard Trainer package" consisted of Pokéballs, Pokédex, and PokéGear. Vale had had just enough space to store the Pokédex and Pokéballs in her backpack. The PokéGear, basically a hi-tech watch, was, of course, worn on the wrist. Damien hadn't had such an easy time. After Vale had showed him how to wear the PokéGear, they'd realized that Damien had no way to easily carry the other equipment, since he didn't have a backpack of his own. Professor Sylvan had lent him one.

Vale led her newfound—and somewhat unwanted—partner through the woods. Telnor Cave was a fairly easy landmark to find, one of only a handful that broke up the seemingly endless expanse of green that was the Shade Woods. The afternoon sun shone through the thick canopy just enough to dapple the forest floor with patches of light. Most of the ground under the trees was perpetually in shadow giving the forest its name and ensuring that most ground-level vegetation could not grow. There was still quite a bit of undergrowth though, mostly thorny bushes that caught at the kids' bare legs as they walked.

Vale could hear the calls of Pidgey, Starly, and the evolved forms of those bird Pokémon, as well as sparrows, jays, and finches. Squirrels ran through the trees alongside Pachirisu. Chipmunks, Rattata, and Buneary darted between the thickets. The Shade Woods was home to more than just Pokémon, and there was no other place in Torren, maybe in any region, where ordinary animals lived alongside them in such perfect coexistence.

"Damien, I have to ask," she said as they walked. "What's up with your aunt?"

"Oh, that. First off, she's older than she looks. My parents walked out on me when I was three. That's what she told me. She raised me ever since."

"And didn't do a good job."

"What makes you say that?"

Vale stopped walking and stepped in front of him, looking him in the eye. "Damien, parents—or guardians—should not tell kids that they're failures."

"Well, I kind of am. A failure, I mean. I haven't accomplished very much."

"This is something."

"What?"

"Going to Telnor Cave and coming back. That's an accomplishment."

"I guess…"

"And after this, I want you to come with me when I go home. My dad was a Gym leader before the League shut down."

"Really?" Damien asked in disbelief.

"Jacob Darcy, known as one of the best Dragon-type Trainers in Torren, maybe in all seven regions. The best possible person to give you some pointers on Training that Charmander."

"And he's your dad?"

"Yep."

"That explains why you were so good in battle class at school."

"Actually, Dad taught me relatively little about battling. Most of what I know about it I learned from reading, watching tournaments on TV, and playing that battling game that came out a few years ago. Dad taught me most of the finer points of being a Trainer, like actually _caring_ for your Pokémon."

"Still, you've got a huge advantage."

"Maybe. I don't have a lot of practical experience, though. School's the only place I've ever battled with real Pokémon."

They started walking again and reached Telnor Cave a few minutes later.

"Okay," Damien muttered. "We go in, find a cool rock or two, then leave. Easy." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"Scared of the dark?" Vale asked.

"Scared of the Pokémon that are in there."

"Well, don't be. We've got Pokémon now, remember?" She pulled out her Bulbasaur's Pokéball.

"Yeah," Damien said, pulling out the ball containing his own starter.

"We can do this."

Damien nodded, but clenched his teeth as he followed her into the cave.

Vale quickly noticed that something was off about the cave. While wild Pokémon usually avoided attacking humans, centuries of poaching had taught them to be on their guard. When she and Damien entered the cave, the Zubat that live there should have started chattering, sending a warning through the colony that humans had entered the cave and to be careful. She could think of only one reason why they would be completely silent in response to two strange humans in their cave: someone or something else was in the cave that scared the Zubat enough that they were trying to avoid being noticed.

"This isn't good," she whispered to Damien.

"How can you tell?"

"Instinct," she replied, trying to keep her reply as short as possible.

"We should go tell someone."

"If someone's in here poaching Zubat, we need to do something about it now." She started walking deeper into the cave.

"We're not Red!" Damien protested, naming the heroic Trainer from Kanto who'd been largely responsible for the fall of Team Rocket. "We could get seriously hurt. Or killed."

"Come on, Damien. I thought you wanted to accomplish something." He sighed and followed her.

Vale kept moving deeper into the cave until she could barely see her hand in front of her face. Then, she pulled off her backpack and went rummaging in it for her flashlight. As she felt around in the bag for it, she felt someone come up behind her.

She jumped but managed to stay silent.

"Vale," hissed a voice. "It's me."

"Damien?" she whispered.

"Yes."

"Don't do that."

"Sorry."

She found the flashlight, put her bag back on her back, and the two continued forward, seeing by the flashlight's dim beam.

As they rounded the next corner, Vale realized that it was getting lighter. Someone else's flashlight beam was illuminating the cave up ahead. And she realized she could hear two people in conversation.

Vale grabbed Damien by his shirt and pulled him behind a rock, turning off her own flashlight as she did.

"What?

"Listen."

"He will not leave Telnor Town alive," said a man's voice.

"He'd better not," said a woman. "I never would have stooped to this with the last one, but he I could at least grudgingly respect. This one…is just an imbecile."

"Sounds like they're planning to assassinate the Augur," Vale said.

"We have to warn him," Damien said.

"Not enough evidence. We'll need more than just something we overheard in Telnor Cave." She thought for a second. "I'm going to sneak up and see if I can get a good look at the people in that room."

"Vale," Damien started, as if he was going to tell her not to but changed his mind.

Vale slipped forward, skirting the wall and feeling her way along. The entrance to the room was partially blocked by rocks, and she ducked behind these when she reached them. Poking her head up, she looked into the room. By the light of their flashlights, Vale could make out two people: a woman in a blue dress and a man in red. She gasped as she realized she recognized both outfits.

"What was that?" the man asked. Vale hurriedly ducked back down behind the rock.

"I didn't hear anything," the woman said. "Probably just the Zubat."

Vale breathed a sigh of relief and scurried back to Damien. "We need to get out of here now. I tell what I saw once we're clear."

* * *

Once out of the cave, Vale explained.

"Not only are they planning an assassination, it's a joint venture between two cults. Abyssal and Infernal."

"We can't let that happen," Damien said.

 _He's just saying that because he hero-worships the guy, like everyone else in Telnor,_ she thought. _We'll see how he handles himself when the chips are down._

"We won't," she said. Damien gave her a surprised look. "What? I don't hate him enough to want him dead."

* * *

The Augur was already in the town hall when they got back. That was also when Damien realized that he still didn't have a gift. Vale promptly said that saving his life was enough of a gift, and they entered the building, slipping into the back row of seats in the small auditorium to the left of the foyer.

The Augur, Jaern, was slightly taller than average, with blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, and welcoming blue eyes. He wore a white suit with a green tie just poking through his collar. His watch was made of white gold, set with jade, and the watch face itself was encircled by an intricate etching of Rayquaza, tail tucked under her chin. Jaern was quite handsome, despite being well into his forties. He had a certain magnetism about him, enhanced by his easy and relaxed bearing as he surveyed the crowd of people anxiously awaiting whatever he had to say to them. It was easy to see why the press loved him, despite his policies that were rapidly bankrupting the region.

Finally he greeted them. "Good afternoon. As you all know, one year ago, my friend and predecessor in the office of Augur was murdered. I vowed to you, the people, when I took the office, that I would find his murderers and bring them to justice. I say now, as I did then, that the Torren government will never submit to those who would use violence and terrorism to get their way."

The speech was delivered with little emotion, but everyone cheered. Vale just rolled her eyes.

But then, she noticed something. Two men standing beside the stage, not cheering or doing anything really aside from watching. They wore the dark purple outfits that had once denoted Ace Trainers, the top Trainers once recruited by the League to administer Trainer exams wherever such tests might be needed. They had purple hair, cut identically.

As Vale watched, one of them pulled a gun and aimed it at the Augur.

She acted without thinking, leaping up, pulling out her Pokéball, and throwing it toward the two men, yelling, "Bulbasaur, go!"

The ball landed right where she'd planned, directly in front of them. Bulbasaur materialized, staring the two men down. The one with the weapon was hesitating. Vale's outburst had directed the attention of half the auditorium to them, and the other half to her.

Vale had acted without stopping to think about the possibility that people would think _she_ was the one attacking the Augur. Fortunately, the one man's gun was plainly visible.

"Bulbasaur, use V… oh crap, you're not a Grass-type." Her plan had been to use Vine Whip to yank the gun away and then take the men's legs out from under them. That wasn't going to happen.

"Uh, Confusion?" she asked. It was always best to call moves confidently and to never phrase an order as a question. But Vale had just realized that she didn't know her Pokémon's moves.

Fortunately, Bulbasaur apparently knew that move. His eyes glowed pink.

Unfortunately, the men responded by releasing Pokémon of their own: a Carvanha and a Houndour. Both Dark-types.

"Crap," Vale said. "Help me." She grabbed Damien and pulled him out of his chair.

Damien pulled out his own Pokéball and threw it. His throw wasn't quite as accurate as Vale's, but, once he emerged, the Charmander quickly figured out where the battle was.

"Fairy Wind on the Carvanha," Vale called as she shoved past Damien and rushed toward the front.

The Bulbasaur's bulb twitched and he whipped up a breeze, tinged pale pink, that hit the Carvanha in the face.

"Bull's Eye!" Vale said. But then she realized that her Pokémon was too inexperienced to take out the Carvanha in one hit.

"Bite, Carvanha."

"Ember, Houndour."

"Damien, help me," Vale cried, as the two attacks pummeled her Pokémon.

"What move should I call?" Damien asked, as he slid out of the back row and moved toward the front. He hung back, behind Vale.

"Try Night Shade. Or Twister. Tackle's always a good choice. Fairy Wind again," she added.

Another pink wind to the face, and the Carvanha fainted. It's Trainer then sent out a Skrelp.

"Uh, Night Shade?" Damien ordered. "On, uh, the Houndour." A blast of dark purple energy hit the Houndour.

"Bite, Houndour."

"Water Gun, Skrelp."

The Houndour sank its teeth into Damien's Charmander, while the Water Gun hit the Bulbasaur.

"Confusion on the Skrelp," Vale called.

"Night Shade again," Damien ordered, sounding more confident now.

Both opposing Pokémon took the hits, but both looked tired.

"Bite again."

The Houndour again sank its teeth into the Charmander. Vale noted that these two would-be assassins were handling facing two Delta Pokémon quite well.

Damien's Charmander was barely standing. Her Bulbasaur wasn't doing much better.

"Confusion again."

"Night Shade."

The Skrelp fainted. The Houndour, without prompting, Bit the Charmander again, and then _it_ fainted.

"Fairy Wind the thing," Vale ordered. Her Bulbasaur did, and the Houndour finally went down.

Its Trainer then sent out a Koffing.

"Confusion," Vale ordered.

"Sludge."

The Confusion hit first, but wasn't enough to stop the incoming Sludge attack, which was enough to knock out the Bulbasaur.

"Uh oh," Vale said.

The two men both had their guns drawn now.

"You kids are going to regret getting in our way," one said.

"No. I think the only ones here with regrets are the two of you." It was the Augur, staring down the two potential assassins. His eyes were no longer welcoming. Each contained a miniature storm.

The two men bailed, dashing out the side entrance to the auditorium, aided by a Smokescreen from the Koffing.

"Security should handle them," he said after their retreating backs. "I want to thank you for that. I could have intervened sooner, but I wanted to see how you would perform."

"And?" Damien asked, eyes wide.

"I was not disappointed. You both did quite well for beginners."

"Vale's not a beginner," Damien said.

"Reading is no substitute for experience," Vale countered as she recalled her Bulbasaur.

The conversation was interrupted by several security guards entering the auditorium through the door the two men had run through. Those same men were now in custody. They didn't look the same though. They'd apparently been wearing wigs, and they'd had time to ditch their outfits outside, revealing what they'd been wearing underneath. One wore the blue uniform of the Abyssal Cult, the other the red outfit of the Infernal Cult.

The Augur scrutinized the two prisoners. "So, the cults are teaming up to eliminate me now," he said.

The man in blue opened his mouth to speak, but the Augur cut him off. "You come here to kill me," he continued. "Here, surrounded by innocents. Then you try to kill two kids whose only crime was leaping to my defense."

The man in red tried to speak this time, but he wasn't able to get anything out either. "I'm having the two of you sent to Helios City to stand trial. Unless you want to turn state's evidence right now and sell out your leaders."

Neither said anything.

"Didn't think so. Take them away."

He turned his attention back to Vale and Damien. " I want to speak with the two of you in private once I'm done here. Recall your Pokémon," he added to Damien.

Damien pulled out his Charmander's Pokéball, but he was so excited—and nervous—at the prospect of a meeting with his hero that he couldn't find the button. Vale pulled the ball out of his hand and did it for him.

"We should probably get our Pokémon seen to in the meantime," she said, more for Damien's benefit than anything.

* * *

 **AN: Vale arrives in Telnor Town and meets the Augur, but not without a few complications...**

 **Ah, Damien. He's one of your rivals in the game, and spends most of the story being a wimp and an idiot. And it's not really surprising considering his home life. While I pulled the name "Aunt Eleanor" out of thin air, she is in the game, and she's a total jerk to Damien, telling him he's irresponsible and a failure. Damien actually has quite a dynamic character arc and becomes a lot smarter and tougher later on.**

 **We also finally meet the Augur. The game doesn't say much has to what exactly the office entails. The word "augur" is actually a synonym for "prophet." The background I decided on is that the first Augur, Jaern's predecessor, was leader of an anti-cult police task force who was the only one actually having any success against them, and who was elevated to political power twenty years ago because people were getting desperate. There's also some religious power inherent to the position.**

 **With regard to Jaern specifically, I actually changed quite a bit. When you first meet him in the game, he introduces himself by listing his accomplishments a la Gilderoy Lockhart and absolutely radiates arrogance. I toned him down a little bit, so it's more believable that so many people would hero-worship him.**

 **I also introduced three more cults in this chapter. This is literally all you see of the Infernal Cult in the game.**

 **Damien's line about being rewarded for not evolving the Eevee was taken straight from the game. There, it serves as a hint. There is a reward for choosing the Eevee and not evolving it: an Eevee-ite Mega stone. Insurgence has several Megas that don't exist officially, including the much-wished-for Mega Flygon. Only one is relevant to this story. I left the line though, to illustrate how little Damien actually knows about Training.**

 **Yes, there are real-world animals in this universe. Doing it that way was the pretty much the only way to make the lore work.**

 **Also, Delta Pokemon. The thing for which Insurgence is most likely to be remembered. I figured that someone as knowledgeable about Pokemon and Typings as Vale would get a little confused when using a Pokemon with a messed up Typing. The best choice from amongst the three Deltas is probably the Bulbasaur. The Squirtle is 4x weak to Fairy, and if you choose it, Damien's going to take the Bulbasaur and destroy you. The Charmander has a good offensive Typing, but if you pick it, the first battle, against the Abyssal Cultist, is going to be mighty tricky because of his Carvanha.**

 **Speaking of that battle scene, I have to explain something regarding Water-types in this story. So, in my headcanon, Pokemon can use moves because they have a natural ability to manipulate the natural energy of the world. This can go beyond standard battle moves, and one way this occurs is that many varieties of Water-type Pokemon can manipulate energy in a way that allows them to float in air the way they do in water, but with a lot less maneuverability.**

 **Last point: Vale's character building. In writing these first few chapters, I was really worried about her seeming like a Mary-Sue Trainer who could do no wrong. Did you notice her major flaw? Vale's learned most of what she knows about the practical side of battling by playing a simulator game that works basically like Pokemon Showdown. As a result, she sometimes tends to think of Pokemon solely in terms of their competitive viability.**


	6. Chapter 5: The Challenge

The Pokémon Center was as clinical as anyone would expect, but far from cold. Pokémon Center staff had long ago figured out that they needed to have as warm and welcoming a demeanor as possible, since they had to deal with a fair number of teary-eyed young Trainers: those who'd just lost a Gym battle, or those who'd gotten in over their heads and had (or at least worried they had) gotten their Pokémon seriously hurt. Fortunately, neither Vale nor Damien belonged to this latter group. In over their heads they may have gotten, but the Pokémon weren't badly hurt.

In truth, they'd gotten lucky and not just that they hadn't been shot. They'd also gotten lucky in terms of secondary effects. The Houndour's Ember attack hadn't produced a burn, and not a single one of their opponents' Bite attacks had resulted in a flinch. Of course, Bulbasaur's Confusion hadn't Confused anything, but considering how often secondary effects seemed to pop up in computerized matches, Vale was pleasantly surprised.

The Pokémon were discharged after less than hour, thanks to Revives, Potions, and a general check-up that they passed with flying colors. Or at least the nurse on duty thought they had. She reluctantly admitted that she wasn't sure what such strange Pokémon's medical readings were _supposed_ to be, but that they seemed to be within normal range for the species.

Vale had one last thing to do before leaving the Center: scan her starter, and show Damien how to do it.

"Tackle, Growl, Confusion, and Fairy Wind," she read off the display.

"Is that good?"

"It's better than what a conventional starter would have at this level. The standard Fire, Water, and Grass starters don't come with STAB."

"STAB?"

"Same-Type Attack Bonus," she explained. "Basically, moves that match a Pokémon's Typing are stronger than moves of equal power than don't."

"So how do I do this?" Damien asked.

"Point your Pokédex at the Pokémon you're trying to scan. Like it's a remote control. And press the big button."

Damien did.

"Tackle, Growl, Night Shade, and Twister," he read off. "You guessed three of those. How did you know?"

"Tackle was obvious. A lot of species start with either that or Pound, including all starters. The other two were basically guesses. Same for Bulbasaur knowing Fairy Wind."

"Wow."

 _You're too easily impressed, Damien_ , she thought.

* * *

Their meeting with the Augur was set to take place in an unused office in the town hall.

Vale and Damien walked down the hall side by side, Damien walking strangely, as though unsure whether to be excited or nervous. Vale was unsure too, but about something quite different. She was no longer sure she _should_ tell the Augur what she thought of him to his face.

As they drew closer, Vale heard two voices in conversation coming from the room they were headed for.

"Something will have to be done about Audrey. She's getting far too bold," the Augur was saying.

Audrey was the leader of the Abyssal Cult. She was a shadowy figure; very little was known about her other than her name and that she was quite young to hold the position she did.

"There were two cults involved in the attempt on your life, sir," said the other voice, one Vale didn't recognize.

"Yes, but I'm certain Audrey organized it. The Infernals' leader never did have a backbone."

"What do you intend to do?"

"There's not a whole lot we _can_ do. We have little information on her that could be used to track her down. I'd hoped those two would-be assassins would have talked. Even just one of them."

Damien, apparently too giddy to think straight, walked through the open office door before Vale could stop him.

"Mr. Mayor?" he asked, surprised, looking at the other man in the office. He was a short, balding fellow, wearing a brown suit.

"Sorry about him," Vale said, trying to tug Damien out of the office.

"It's alright. He was just leaving," the Augur said, emphasizing the last two words.

"I was?"

"Yes, you were."

The mayor left.

"Sit down, you two."

Damien hurriedly sat in the chair the mayor had just vacated. Vale leaned against the doorframe.

"Vale, sit down," Damien hissed.

"You don't like me, do you?" the Augur asked her.

"I'd be hard pressed to like any leader who was systematically bankrupting the country," she said.

"That money is all going towards anti-cult initiatives," he countered. "The things that let people sleep without worrying they're going to murdered in their beds."

"Right," Vale said. "And I'm sure that that prohibitively expensive carving on top of your headquarters was also a _completely necessary_ anti-cult initiative."

"A morale booster," he explained. "As I'm sure you're aware, the Jade Tower—formerly the Municipal Tower—was in a state of disrepair until about a year ago. The renovations I've made will allow it to serve as a beacon of hope."

Before he even took over as Augur, Jaern had been working on a massive building project: renovating the old Municipal Tower in Helios City to serve as a headquarters for the anti-cult task force. Most people had supported the project. Vale had too, until he'd unveiled the plans for what he intended to crown the newly renovated tower. He'd contracted a sculptor to create a _life-size_ statue of Rayquaza, made from solid jade, no less, that would coil around the Tower's conical roof with its head resting on the very top.

Vale had watched the unveiling on TV, and it was certainly beautiful, but the cost had surely been ridiculous.

"Anyway, I asked you two here for a reason, and that reason was not to debate the potential effectiveness of my anti-cult strategy."

"Oh?" Vale said.

"You two have as much potential as any young Trainers I've seen. Unfortunately, with the current state of the region, there's no Gym challenge to take, and the Separation closed off the other main way for young Trainers to test themselves. However, considering how you saved my life, I feel obliged to return the favor."

Damien's eyes widened.

"So, what I intend to do is this. I'm considering sponsoring the two of you to travel to another region and take the Gym challenge there. But I need you to convince me once and for all. Therefore, I'm going to set you a challenge of my own. I expect you both in Helios City in two weeks time. You will travel in the traditional manner of Trainers, that is, on foot, and by the time you arrive I expect you both to have added no fewer than three additional Pokémon to your teams."

Damien now just looked dejected.

"Mr. Augur," he said.

"Please, call me Jaern."

"Mr. Jaern, I can't. Aunt Eleanor…,"

"I've spoken to her already about this. She didn't seem inclined to argue with me."

Damien looked at Vale. "What do you think?" he asked.

"Damien," she replied. "Stop asking me. This is your decision. No one else's."

"I'm only doing it if you are."

As she thought it over, she realized that her dislike of the man offering it paled in comparison to how much she wanted that chance. She'd wanted to become a Trainer since she was six years old. She'd dreamed about entering a League Championship, maybe even winning one, and she'd been devastated when her father had finally been forced to tell her that there was no League in Torren anymore.

"How can I say no?" she said. "Damien, pack your crap."

* * *

"I don't have much crap to pack," Damien confided when Vale remarked on the size of his borrowed backpack.

"Well, did you bring food?"

"Yes."

"Sleeping bag?"

"I don't own one."

"I suppose you don't have a tent either."

"Nope."

"You did remember to buy Pokéballs, right?"

"No."

"Potions?"

"No."

"Antidotes?"

"No."

"Healing items of any kind?"

"No."

"Do you even have money?"

"No."

"Well, that explains a lot."

"What do I do?"

"We've got plenty of stuff at the house, and we are still stopping there on the way out. You can stock up then."

Vale needed to stock up herself. She'd packed for a one-day trip, not a two-week one.

Jaern escorted them to the main exit from town, people leaning out of second-story windows to watch. Others hung around on the street, pretending to be engrossed in shopping or conversing, while actually watching and wondering what it was about those two kids that had the Augur so interested.

Vale tried to keep from shooting angry looks at him as they walked, but after noticing the way he moved, she couldn't help it. He radiated arrogance. It hadn't been as obvious when he was on the stage, addressing the town, and it definitely hadn't been as obvious when he was in the office, sitting down. Now was a whole different story.

As they approached the exit, and the cobbled streets of Telnor Town slowly transformed into the dirt path, Jaern stopped.

"Good luck, both of you," he said, then pulled out a Pokéball…

…and released a Salamence.

Damien's mouth fell open. Vale was a bit surprised herself. She knew about Jaern's Salamence, of course. Everyone did. He wasn't exactly shy about acknowledging that he'd successfully managed to train that particular Dragon-type.

But seeing it in person? That was a different story. Granted, her father's starter had been a Dratini, but Dragonite had powerful natural protective instincts and were fiercely loyal to anyone who'd earned their trust. They were, therefore, probably the easiest fully evolved Dragon-type to work with. Salamence required a much firmer hand.

Jaern climbed onto the dragon's back. It took off without prompting, making one circle of the entire town, then a second, smaller circle centered on the town hall before flying off to the north.

Vale rolled her eyes. Damien looked a bit dumbstruck, staring at empty space in awe, as were most of the other people on the street.

 _It's just a dragon. You see a ton of them on TV,_ she thought. _Unless it's the rider they're mooning over. Of course it would be the rider._

"Damien," she said, resisting the urge to smack him.

"Oh, right," he said. "I want to take the first step of our journey together."

She rolled her eyes again. She could tell she was going to be doing a lot of that in the near future.

"That's so cliché, Damien," she said.

"I still want to do it."

She gave him a long look. "Fine," she finally said.

"Yay," Damien said, sounding like a five-year-old.

They turned around to face the woods and the dirt trail.

"Well, here goes nothing," Vale said.

"Yeah," Damien agreed.

Together they stepped through the gateway and began their journey.

* * *

 **AN: The journey begins, with a challenge from the Augur himself...**

 **This chapter took forever to come together. I could not get my creative juices flowing in the right direction. That's also why it's so short.**

 **Not much to talk about here. We got a little bit about how Pokedexes work. They can determine a Pokemon's moves by scanning it, but Natures and Abilities have to be determined from a special genetic scan or deduced through careful observation of battles.**

 **Jaern's Salamence is the only member of his team that you hear about in the game, but as it exists currently you don't get to see any of his Pokemon. You only find out about it from talking to NPCs, who talk about like its some amazingly strong Pokemon. Stronger than a typical Salamence, I mean.**

 **Also, I did decide on a cost for the statue, although I realized that putting it in didn't make sense. If anyone's curious, it cost about 10 million Poke.**

 **Lastly, I know Damien's insistence on starting the journey at the same time is cliche. Vale said as much. That's why I put it in. Damien is essentially going to be living in a TV show for most of the first half of this fic.**


	7. Chapter 6: Shock and Anger

Once in the woods, Vale found the path back to her house easily, and they set off. Vale thought she could find her way home from Telnor Town blindfolded if need be.

What not everyone realized was that almost the entire forest was situated on a gradual slope in some direction. The area had once been known as a mountain, a place viewed with superstition and fear by the people who lived in this area. It had been on that mountain that an event known to historians as the Revelation happened, when the man who would become the world's first Trainer had discovered the true nature of Pokémon.

Vale lived with her parents in a spacious ranch-style house located about halfway between Telnor Town and the top of the mountain.

"Tell me about your parents," Damien asked as they walked.

"Well, you already know a little about my dad. Jacob Darcy was the Helios City Gym leader for ten years, and to be honest, he would probably still be doing it if the Torren League still existed. Most people faced him third in the order, and his team for third-badge fights wasn't too tricky to beat. He told me it was a Bagon, a Deino, and a Trapinch.

"But a fair number of Trainers left him for last. Dad's eighth-badge team was notoriously difficult to beat. It was Flygon, Garchomp with a Mega stone, Kingdra, Dragalge, Hydreigon, and Dragonite. That team crushed a lot of dreams, and _Trainer_ magazine certified it as unbeatable, although it wasn't, and a lot of people took that as a challenge. Dad framed a copy of the issue and still keeps it in his office. A lot of people underestimated him because his was the only Gym in Torren that didn't have a theme other than just a single type. Torren Gyms were creative like that. The Sun-Touched City Gym always used a sun theme, Vipik City had a forest theme, and so on.

"Dad loved knocking arrogant Trainers down a peg or two. He told me a story once about this one rich asshole who had a Weavile specially bred to take on Dad's eighth-badge team. Had it worked, that Weavile would have given Dad a serious run for his Poké. See, it was holding a Focus Sash, that item that guarantees that a Pokémon can take one hit without fainting, and Weavile have very sharp claws. The Trainer had given it the Sash, then put it back in its ball. By the time it was sent out to battle, it had somehow managed to rip the Sash, rendering it useless. Dad won."

"Seriously?" Damien asked. "That's kind of hilarious."

"Oh, I'm sure it was, just not for the challenger."

"And your mom?

"She worked in a Pokémon Center, but quit after she met Dad and set up a private clinic in Midna Town. She was gone a lot while I was growing up. When she was home, we'd always end up taking in injured wild Pokémon and caring for them. Dad started breeding Dragon-types, particularly Dragonite, after the League shut down. Thanks to the two of them, I've been around Pokémon for most of my life. Dad says 'Pokémon' was my first word. I don't buy it."

Damien was laughing uncontrollably.

"I don't see what's so funny," Vale said.

"It's us. You practically live and breathe Pokémon. I know next to nothing."

"Well, that's why you're going to learn."

"I hope…"

Damien was cut off by a loud Pokémon cry that split the evening.

"I know that cry." Vale muttered.

A familiar silhouette flew overhead, just visible through a gap in the canopy.

"Racer, down here," she called to her dad's Dragonite.

The yellow Dragon-type dropped to the ground in front of her.

"Did Dad send you to look for me?" she asked. "Sorry I've been gone so long."

Racer shook his head.

Racer the Dragonite had played as much of a role in raising Vale has her parents had. He was immensely protective, even for a Dragonite. Her parents hadn't been able to watch her all the time while she was growing up, so Racer had taken it upon himself to keep one eye on her whenever they couldn't. He'd let her ride him from time to time, flying low and slow for her sake, until the day she'd gotten bored of that. He'd always greeted her when she came home from school. Some of the earliest pictures of baby Vale showed Racer standing protectively by the crib, in a way that promised that anyone other than Vale's parents who came anywhere near her would find themselves on the receiving end of a Wing Attack. Fortunately, he'd mellowed out a bit since then.

 _He looks scared,_ she thought. _That can't be good._

Racer looking even slightly flustered had the potential to be a very bad thing. He'd been Jacob Darcy's first Pokémon. He'd been Vale's father's closest partner as he fought his way through eight Gyms and the League tournament, which he'd ended up winning. He'd stayed right by her father's side through ten years as a Gym leader. It was very hard to shake the Dragonite's calm demeanor.

"Racer, what's going on?" she asked.

"Dra, dra. Gonite. Draaaa," he said, pointing in the general direction of the house.

"Something's happened at the house?" Vale asked.

"Gon," Racer said, nodding frantically.

"You have to take me there. Now." Vale clambered onto his back.

"Hey, what about me?" Damien cried as Racer took off.

Once above the trees, Vale quickly realized that Racer was flying in the wrong direction.

"Racer, turn around," she said. "I have to go _toward_ the house."

Racer promptly used Dragon Dance, glowing red and flying even faster in the wrong direction, which banished any thoughts Vale may have had that he had simply gotten turned around.

"Racer, please turn around."

"Gonite, goniiiiite," Racer said. Dragons didn't cry, but that didn't mean they couldn't, and Racer certainly sounded like he was about to.

"Racer," she said. "Whatever happened at the house, I have to see for myself. Please?"

The Dragonite turned around.

* * *

Nothing looked out of place at the house, at least not at first.

It wasn't a particularly large house, but the yard was huge. There were no hard and fast boundary lines at the edges of the Darcy property; the land they claimed merged seamlessly with the woods. The backyard contained a large shed, more actually a stable of sorts, out of which Jacob Darcy based his breeding operation. Beside the shed was a large artificial pond for the Dratini to swim around in. The rest of the backyard and all of the front were still pristine forest, aside from the compost heap out back, which was situated as far from the house as possible to cut down on the smell.

Racer landed in the backyard, and Vale slid off. The fact that she wasn't immediately assaulted by overly friendly Growlithe didn't initially bother her.

Vale's mother, Meena, had taken in and cared for a Growlithe with a fractured leg when Vale had been about eight. He'd left once recovered but had soon come back—with his entire pack. The Growlithe, about ten of them, had more or less moved in. Vale's dad had trained them to guard the family's property, but often at night they preferred to all curl up together on the living room floor, or sometimes the couch. More than once, Vale had fallen asleep while watching reruns of old League tournaments on TV and woken up the next morning in a pile of Growlithe.

"They're all inside, right?" she said to herself. "Racer," she then told the Dragonite, "go find Damien. I don't want him wandering around the forest in the dark."

"Gon, draaa," Racer protested.

"That's an order," she said, getting a little annoyed.

Racer reluctantly flew off.

Vale headed for the back door. As she got close, she saw something that made her stomach turn to ice. There was blood on the doorknob.

She flung the door open…

…and momentarily froze, her mind not completely processing what her eyes were seeing.

Her father was lying face down on the living room floor, the carpet around him stained the dark red of partially dried blood.

After a moment of staring dumbstruck at the scene in front of her, she rushed forward into the room, only to stop dead before she got even half way there. The way he was lying gave her an unobstructed view of the deep cut in his neck. He was clearly dead.

Her knees buckled.

She hit the ground.

She didn't cry. Her mind didn't race. She just lay there in shock.

 _My father is dead. My father is dead._ That was the only thought in her head. _He's gone. I may never see him again._

And then she felt small arms wrap around her neck and a soft tail drape comfortingly across her shoulders.

Mew. She reached out and grabbed hold of him, pulling him close like she once had her stuffed Teddiursa toy.

A flash of Psychic energy. _Where's Mom?_ Vale thought. _Huh?_

Confused about the sudden left turn her thought process had taken, she looked at Mew. "Did you…?"

" **A variant of Calm Mind. To deal with the shock. And so you stop crushing me.** "

"Sorry." She let Mew go and stood up, which was when she saw the blood on the coffee table.

Mew had noticed it at about the same time. He hovered above the table, tipping his head from side to side, trying to make sense of it.

The blood, most of it dry, formed the shape of a ragged circle.

"Any idea…"

" **None,** " Mew said. " **I want to say its Darkrai's neck ring, but that doesn't…** "

"That's the symbol of the Darkrai Cult, the red ring," Vale interrupted.

" **So they did this.** "

Vale bolted out of the living room and down the hall, Mew darting after her.

"Mom!" she called. "Mom, where are you?"

The door to the master bedroom pulled shut but not closed all the way. Vale pushed it open.

Mew frantically tried to cover her eyes with his tail, but he wasn't fast enough.

Meena Darcy was lying on the master bed, naked. Her stomach had been sliced open, her blood splattered all across the sheets—which just happened to be white—and much of it still looked fresh. There were other cuts on her arms, face, and chest. Evidently, her killer had taken his time.

Vale fell to her knees, tears running down her face. "How could this happen? How could he let this happen?" she sobbed.

" **Vale, I am so sorry. If I had known…** "

"Cool! I knew I saw Mew," said a voice behind them. It was Damien.

"Damien, get out!" Vale screamed.

Mew grabbed Damien by the ear and practically dragged him back to the living room. Racer entered the hallway next, focused on comforting Vale but unable to resist glancing over his shoulder periodically at the Legend who for some reason was in his house.

He tried to put an arm around her, but she pushed him away.

"I'm going to kill them Racer, the one's responsible for this. They are going to die."

* * *

After getting a lecture from Mew on his "deplorable lack of sensitivity," Damien called the police. Mew bailed well before they showed up, and Vale, not wanted to deal with them, climbed onto the roof to try and avoid them.

She lay back and watched the stars on their imperceptibly slow nightly trip across the sky. She knew all the names, thanks to nights stargazing with her dad. The Ring of Creation, the Trainer, the Dragonair. _I swear,_ she thought. _I swear to Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, and all the other Legends that the people who killed my parents are going to pay._

"Vale, honey, can you come down here for a second?"

She jerked back to reality and scooted down the slope of the roof just far enough that she could see who was calling to her. It was a female police officer.

"I can talk just fine from up here," Vale said.

"We need to decide what your living arrangements are going to be," the woman called up. "Your friend said the two of you were going on a journey, but that can't be right."

"Why not? People still make Pokémon journeys in Torren. It's just little rarer than in other regions."

"But your parents…"

"Exactly. There's nothing left for me here." She lay back against the roof tiles.

* * *

Vale cried herself to sleep that night.

She woke up the next morning to a house transformed. The living room carpet had been bleached, the master bed stripped. The bodies were gone, taken away to be autopsied. Probably unnecessary, but that was procedure. The Growlithe, who had been locked in the shed, were all in the living room, being uncharacteristically somber. The whole house probably smelled like death to them. Damien was feeding them, a couple slices each of the turkey that had been in the fridge.

"Damien," she said.

"Vale," he responded, turning to face her. "I'm sorry. About last night."

" **He's been paying penance for the way he acted,** " said Mew. " **Under my supervision.** " The little Legend flew in from the kitchen.

Vale sniffed the air. "Did you make breakfast?" she asked Damien.

"Yeah."

"You cook?"

"Not really. But I can make scrambled eggs."

"Great. Let's eat. I want to be in Midna Town by tonight."

"Are we really still going on this trip?" Damien asked as they walked into the kitchen. "I figured you'd want to and told the police as much, but it seems a little…soon…to me."

Vale shot a glance at Mew, who was looking at her strangely. "As I told them, there's nothing left for me here. And taking this trip is the best way to avoid child services. I am not going to an orphanage."

Young Trainers who went on journeys had greater legal rights than kids of similar age who didn't. Vale didn't particularly understand why, but it was still a law. She had stumbled across it while doing research for a school paper. In other words, going on a Pokémon journey was the best way to ensure that she wouldn't spend the next two years as a ward of the state.

Damien spooned the eggs onto two plates. Vale wolfed hers down and turned to go pack, only to find herself face-to-face with Racer, who'd come into the kitchen carrying his Pokéball.

That ball hadn't actually been used in decades. Even while on his journey, Jacob Darcy had let his Pokémon walk outside their balls. During his tenure as a Gym leader, he'd basically given them the run of the building and only put them in their balls immediately prior to facing a challenger. After being forcibly removed from his position as a result of the League's disbandment, he'd stopped using Pokéballs all together.

"That reminds me," she said, taking the ball from his hand. "I decided last night. I'm releasing you."

She looked around for something to smash the ball with.

"Dra, dra," Racer said, shaking his head.

"I can't keep you, and I'm sorry."

" **Vale!** " Mew interjected. " **He said he doesn't want to leave. And I know you wouldn't release a Pokémon who wanted to stay.** "

She handed the ball back to Racer. "Let me think about it."

* * *

Vale was no stranger to taking day trips, but had never taken anything longer. With nothing to hold her back, this could be the last time she ever set foot in the house. She packed as quickly as possible, hoping to get on the road early in order to make Midna Town by nightfall.

She pulled out the big backpack that had served as her suitcase when her dad had taken her to Helios City for a few days to visit a friend of his, a man named East, who'd reopened the Helios City Gym and was running it as a hobbyist.

She dumped the entire contents of her smaller back into the bigger one: snacks, water, change of clothes, two Pokéballs. The tent and sleeping bag she put aside for the time being. If she put them in the bag she knew she wouldn't have enough room to fit everything else she needed to fit. She checked each off her mental checklist as she put it into the backpack.

More clothes.

A few Potions of varying strength.

Status healing items, two of each, including Revives, taken from the basement storage room.

A bag of Pokémon food (as a Plan B in case she couldn't find the right kinds of berries)

First-aid kit (for humans)

Five additional Pokéballs.

Region map.

Her sketchbooks.

Pencil.

She found similar items for Damien, minus the sketchbooks, as well as a pair of Pokédex cases that would clip onto a belt, or, barring that, the waistband of a pair of pants. Into the pocket of her jacket, she placed a plastic baggie containing her life savings: 250 Poké. She'd started saving that money at the age of six, in preparation for the journey she'd intended to take even after finding out there was no Gym challenge anymore. The League had once provided young Trainers with a couple hundred Poké when they left on their journeys, but that was no longer an option. She'd have to split the money with Damien now, which annoyed her a bit. Making money was not easy for adults in Torren these days, and few business owners wanted to take on a teenager as an employee, even for just a day. They felt there was too much risk involved in hiring inexperienced workers.

She had no passport, and that didn't concern her. She assumed Jaern would provide one if she passed his challenge.

She was just zipping up her backpack when Mew Teleported into her bedroom.

" **I heard what you said last night on the roof,** " he said.

"Oh?"

" **I just wanted to make sure you were aware of how lucky you are that oaths like that no longer mean anything.** "

She was. Before the Separation, swearing on the Legends was serious business. When they left, any significance such an oath may have had went with them.

"What's the problem, then?"

" **Meaningful or not, I don't appreciate being lumped in on an oath of vengeance.** "

"Do you expect me to just accept the fact that Persephone had my parents _murdered_?" she demanded.

" **Is killing her going to make you feel better?** "

"Yes."

" **No, it's not, Vale. Trust me. By the way,** " he added, in a very different tone, " **there's a very confused Grass-type in this house wondering why she hasn't been let out yet.** " He Teleported away.

It took Vale a second to figure out what he meant.

 _Oh, crap_ , she thought.

* * *

The Grass-type in question turned out to be Meena Darcy's Meganium, nicknamed Verbena. She had been to Meena what Racer had been to Jacob: starter Pokémon and lifelong friend. Verbena had been sleeping in her Pokéball at the time of the murders, luckily for her. She could've let herself out easily; any Pokémon who'd spent enough time in a Pokéball eventually figured that out. But Verbena didn't like being up before her Trainer, for some reason no one had ever quite been able to figure out, and waited to hear Meena's voice before popping out.

Vale explained what had happened, and then promptly ran into the same roadblock she had with Racer. Verbena had no intention of leaving. Fortunately, Vale had a back-up plan in this case. Meena Darcy's other Pokémon, a Chansey and a Miltank, were at the clinic in Midna Town. Vale decided she would take Verbena there. The other nurses and Pokémon would take care of her as she dealt with her grief.

* * *

Once Vale had sorted out Verbena and had stored the Meganium's Pokéball in her backpack, she swung the bag over her shoulder, tent and sleeping bag strapped to the top of it, and met Damien in the living room. She had a hard time tearing her eyes away from the spot where her father had died, still tinted pink.

"Vale, you ready?" Damien asked.

"Yeah," she said. _Anything so I don't have to spent another day here._

" **I'm coming with you,** " Mew said.

"Lucky!" Damien muttered.

" **Not the way you think. You won't see me, but you'll hear me.** "

"Why the change?" Vale asked. "What happened to all that concern over violating the Edict?"

Mew didn't answer.

"You know I'm going to worm a satisfactory answer to that question out of you sooner or later."

" **No, you're not.** "

* * *

She stood in her father's office. She'd insisted on saying goodbye to the house before leaving. This was the last room she'd stepped into.

There was a book open on the desk. Even without being able to see the cover, she recognized it: _Concerning the Legends_ , the most complete work ever written on Legendary Pokémon and one Vale had read easily half a dozen times.

 _I suppose I should take this with me,_ she thought. _All things considered._

As she lifted the book to put it into her backpack, she saw a sealed envelope beneath it on the desk. She picked it up and looked at it.

"To Vale," it said. "To be opened on your eighteenth birthday."

She seriously considered opening it right then, but decided against it. If her father hadn't wanted her to open it until she was eighteen, then she wouldn't open it until then. She slipped it into _Concerning the Legends_ and placed the book into her backpack. As an afterthought, she also grabbed _A Trainer's Guide to Pokémon_ off the bookshelf and put that in too.

She opened one of the desk drawers. She probably shouldn't have been snooping, but, after finding that envelope, she wanted to see if her dad had hidden anything else for her to find. This particular drawer contained a pair of black fingerless gloves. She remembered seeing her dad wearing gloves like these in recordings of his Gym battles. She tried them on. They just about fit.

She checked the other drawers and found nothing of interest.

As she turned to leave, she looked back at the desk and saw the framed copy of _Trainer_ magazine. Her dad stared out from the cover, surrounded by his eighth-badge team and wearing a huge grin. The word "Unbeatable" was written across the picture in yellow script.

"I'll become a Trainer you can be proud of, Dad," she said. "I promise."

* * *

Vale had a couple of last-minute things to do before she left. First on the list was checking on all the Pokémon. Amazingly, there had been no Pokémon casualties in the attack, although a couple of eggs were missing. The Dratini had been in the pond, the Growlithe in the shed, Verbena in her Pokéball. _They_ , at least, had all gotten extremely lucky, and Vale supposed that was something to be grateful for.

Second was removing all perishable food items from the house. Mew was a huge help in this regard, Teleporting just about the entire contents of the fridge into the compost heap.

Third was to make sure the house would be guarded in her absence.

At Vale's request, Mew assembled Racer and the Growlithe in the backyard. The Dratini poked their heads out of the pond, but couldn't otherwise participate, as they were quite slow and awkward on land.

"You are all welcome to continue living here if you want. But if you do, the same rules stand as before. That means you guard dogs don't get to just laze around all day."

A couple of the Growlithe whimpered slightly, almost like they were saying "Aw, man!"

"That also means you still have to stay out of Dad's office. And no battling in the house. If I ever come back, I expect to find the house still standing and decently close to how I left it."

As the rest started walking away, one Growlithe detached himself from the pack and headed back toward Vale. She recognized this one, essentially the omega dog of the pack, and a quick scan with her Pokédex revealed that he only knew Bite, Roar, and Ember.

"Grrrrowlithe!" he said, sitting down in the grass and wagging his tail enthusiastically.

" **He wants to go with you,** " Mew supplied.

"I didn't need you to tell me that. I can read body language, you know." Vale reached into her bag and pulled out a Pokéball. "We'll see about turning that Ember into a Flamethrower, okay?"

"Groooooww!" he said, then pressed his nose to the ball.

"Did you seriously just pick up a second Pokémon that fast?" Damien asked.

"Goniiiite, dra," Racer complained.

"Racer, I'm sorry," Vale said, sounding slightly defensive. " I'm not releasing you, but I can't take you with me either. I was hoping you'd stay here and keep an eye on the Growlithe for me."

"Gon," he said, nodding.

Vale half expected another unnecessary translation from Mew, but one didn't come.

Racer placed a clawed hand on Vale's shoulder. "Dra, draaaa. Gonite," he said.

This time she needed translation, but Mew said nothing.

"Mew," she called. "What did he say?"

" **Do you want my translations or not?** "

"Yes. I just don't always need them."

" **He said 'Stay safe. Please.'** "

"You too, Racer. Come on, Damien."

And so Vale left the only home she'd ever known.

* * *

 **AN: Tragedy strikes at Vale's house...**

 **Lot of important details in this chapter. Mew is now a permanent fixture. He'll be providing advice for most of the story. He's warming up to Vale, but it's slow going. Vale just "caught" her second team member. She now has two major goals: avenge her parents, and become a Trainer they can be proud of. I would say that these are probably contradictory.**

 **Yes, I really did just do that. This was a hard chapter to write, not because I didn't know what was going to happen, but because I was worried about Vale's reaction not making sense. I've experienced a lot more death than the average person of my age, but I've never lost a loved one to violence. I based Vale's reaction on mine when my grandmother passed away. Also, in case you didn't notice, her anger is initially directed at Arceus ("How could he let this happen?"), who is very much God in this universe. Also, this was not Persephone's plan. This was the result of that plan going horribly wrong.**

 **The game doesn't address the matter of the player's parents, who are probably worried sick, at all. The explanation for this is convenient (or inconvenient) amnesia courtesy of Persephone and a certain Gengar. Vale doesn't have amnesia, because Mew was able to reverse the process of her losing her memories instead of simply stopping it like he does in the game.**

 **Also, the star-gazing scene. I recently started thinking about how the constellations of our night sky might be recognized as different things in a world where Pokemon existed. So Cygnus, the swan, would become a Swanna, and Aquila, the eagle, would be a Braviary. The constellations in this world aren't the same as the real-world constellations, but they are based on them. The Trainer is Orion the Hunter. I got the idea that the three bright stars of Orion's belt might be recognized as his Pokeballs. The Dragonair is, of course, Draco the dragon. Finding a real-world constellation to become the Ring of Creation was a bit tricky. Originally I went with Corona, the crown. The constellation that is most similar to Arceus' ring in shape is probably Hercules, which is unfortunately fairly dim and difficult to find. I went with it anyway.**

 **Regarding money in this story, I'm well aware that 250 Poke wouldn't get you very far in-game. I actually messed with the currency a bit for this story. In-game currency is based of Japanese yen, and one yen is worth a lot less than one dollar. In this AU, 250 Poke is roughly the equivalent of $250.**

 **Blinding White Light fans may notice a certain similarity between Vale's house and Rebecca's house. They're not the same house, but they are located on almost the exact same spot. Vale is actually Rebecca's descendant, although she doesn't know it. I originally planned for Rebecca's last name to be Darcy, until I realized that there was no way that name would survive for 2700 years.**

 **The bit with the gloves was the result of me forgetting that piece of Vale's outfit in the description in chapter 1.**

 **The next couple chapters will probably be just as information heavy as this one, so be prepared.**


	8. Chapter 7: Midna Town

They got out of the house a bit later than Vale had hoped for, but she'd badly underestimated how much needed to be done first. Had it not been for Mew's assistance in emptying the fridge, they probably wouldn't have been on the road until well after 11:00.

Mew was a bit indecisive about whether to ride on Vale's shoulder or Teleport away and meet up with her and Damien on the other side of Midna Town. Vale didn't particularly care one way or another, although she still wasn't hugely thrilled about a Pokémon who was perfectly capable of levitation hitching a ride on her. Damien practically begged him to stay, pointing out that he could easily Teleport away in the event that they crossed paths with another Trainer. Mew explained that he was more concerned with the forest Pokémon freaking out over seeing a Legend.

" **Regular Pokémon tend to react that way around us,** " he explained.

He eventually decided it would be better for everyone if he didn't hang around, but compromised by showing back up when Vale and Damien stopped for a late lunch.

"Mew?" Damien asked.

" **What?** " Mew took a bite of an Oran Berry he'd pulled off a conveniently placed bush.

"Can I ask you a question?"

" **You just did, but I suppose you can ask another one.** " Vale rolled her eyes.

"What's the Edict?"

Vale's mouth fell open. "We studied it in school," she said.

"Did we?"

"Its full name is the Edict of Separation, Damien."

"Oh. Well, I still don't remember much. I didn't fixate on it like you did."

" **I've gathered that you're not a big fan of it, Vale,** " Mew said.

"I don't think it was even remotely justified."

Mew glanced at Damien. " **I suppose if we're going to debate this, I'll have to explain it first.** "

"I would like to hear it from a Legend's viewpoint," Vale said.

" **Well,** " Mew began, " **as I hope you're already aware, two hundred years ago, the leader of the Kalosian radical group Team Flare, a fellow named Lysandre, who I strongly suspect was insane, thought he could remake the world, no doubt drawing inspiration from Cyrus and Team Galactic. To do this, he and his agents captured Xerneas and Yveltal, with the intention of harnessing their power to reactivate a weapon left over from an old civil war. Of course, they were stopped in the nick of time by…** "

"The Fab Five!" Damien interrupted.

" **Is that what they're calling them these days? Anyway, five young Trainers stopped the weapon from firing, by which time Yveltal was so drained of energy that she was barely clinging to life, and Xerneas wasn't much better off. It was only thanks to a miracle that they both survived.**

" **It rattled everyone. Even Lugia, and she** ** _never_** **gets rattled by anything. The fact that, out of all of us, it was Yveltal who'd just come that close to dying didn't help. I know a couple Legends who can look back on it and laugh at the irony. For most of us, it's a very serious matter.**

" **I know people used to say that a Legend who doesn't want to be found is impossible to find. I wish that were true. It's very, very easy for creatures as powerful as we are to feel overly secure and get complacent. By the time Team Flare came along, it was easy to find a Legend if you had the right resources. Rayquaza visited Sky Pillar on a semi-regular basis. Groudon was always in his volcano. Reshiram and Zekrom hung out in Dragonspiral Tower. And if Dialga and Palkia entered your world at all, it was always at Spear Pillar.**

" **Xerneas and Yveltal were some of the harder Legends to find, and Team Flare still found them. Arceus decided that the best way to ensure that something like that didn't happen again was to ensure that it couldn't happen again.** "

"So he separated the worlds," Vale finished, "and forbade any crossing between them."

" **It's not that simple. Some of us have to cross periodically to do our jobs, and do so under some very strict rules. To add to the irony of the whole situation, the Edict barely affected Yveltal at all, when she was its strongest supporter. She still crosses multiple times a day to collect souls.** "

"What I don't understand is why this incident was the one that sparked a decision like that," Vale said. "What made this worse than what Team Galactic tried to do?"

" **A couple reasons. First, Team Flare used Master Balls.** "

Vale gasped. Master Balls had been illegal almost since their invention, because they were the only variety of ball that could not be broken out of. If the ball hit a Pokémon, that Pokémon was guaranteed caught, unless it had already been caught by someone else. The balls were the only surefire way of catching a Legend, and catching one in such a way was considered the worst crime a Trainer could commit.

" **The second reason is because the world actually came much closer to disaster that time than with Team Galactic. One of Team Flare's scientists played a mind game with one of the Trainers. He presented her with two buttons. One shut down the machine, the other fired it. She picked the right one, but Lysandre tried to fire the weapon anyway. It self-destructed. Basically, a lucky guess saved the world.** "

"He still had no right to judge us all for the actions of a handful of people."

" **That's essentially what he said with regard to Team Galactic. He forgave humanity then, but then the same thing happened again. He couldn't risk it happening a third time.** "

* * *

Vale explained the route as they walked.

"So once we come out of the woods, we'll be in Midna Town. There's a Trainer's School there, so we should be able to get our Pokémon some good experience."

She stepped over a fallen tree. She turned to help Damien over, but he waved her away.

"If we head north from there, we'll hit Suntouched City, then east a bit to Metchi Town, and down the river to Vipik City. From there, we cross Rezzai Desert, cut through the caverns beyond, and pop out an easy day's walk from Helios City."

"W-we're going through R-Rezzai?" Damien asked. "Isn't it incredibly dangerous?"

"Only if you're not prepared. Besides there's only two ways to get from Vipik to Helios on foot: the west route through Rezzai, or the east route through the mountains. And anything is safer than the mountains."

That was true. Even in the age of technology, Torren's Central Mountains claimed a significant number of lives each year, thanks to a combination of the freezing temperatures at higher elevations, some very territorial Pokémon, as well as other mountain animals, and an awful lot of places to fall to one's death.

"Are you sure we can make this trip in two weeks?" Damien asked.

Vale paused to catch her breath at the top of the hill. "Honestly? No."

"Really?" he asked as he joined her.

"If it was three weeks, I'd say absolutely. But this? I don't know."

"Where'd you figure out all this stuff, anyway?"

"I've wanted to take a Pokémon journey since I was six, Damien," Vale explained. "I've spent a lot of time looking at maps." She started down the hill. "I've also been to Helios before."

Damien hurried to catch up. "What's it like?"

"You've seen in on TV, haven't you?"

"I mean in person."

"Big. Crowded. Polluted. And unfriendly, both the people and the city itself. I'll take the good old Shade Woods over that any day."

* * *

They stopped for another snack around dinnertime, once it became apparent that they wouldn't reach Midna Town until well after sunset. Damien pulled an apple out of his backpack. Vale, wanting to conserve her supplies, went looking for Berries instead.

She slipped into the woods, moving with the air of one who was very familiar with the woods. People often talked about the dangers of stepping off the path in any wilderness area, because Pokémon would attack. That wasn't quite true. Scientists and experienced Trainers were mostly in agreement that Pokémon usually avoided attacking humans, unless the Pokémon in question was particularly hungry, particularly aggressive, or defending its young. Regular animals often posed more of a threat. The problem was trying to avoid both at once. Making a lot of noise would serve to announce your presence and scare away any animals that might attack if snuck up on. That same thing would sometimes attract predatory Pokémon curious as to what idiot creature was making so much noise. They probably wouldn't attack once they saw it was a human, but there were plenty of stories of predatory Pokémon attacking what they thought was prey without looking and the attacked humans whipping out firearms and shooting instinctively.

Vale found a Berry bush fairly quickly. It was the middle of summer, after all, when all such bushes were laden with fruit. This particular bush offered Sitrus Berries, which was a huge stroke of luck. The energy-restoring effect worked on humans as well as Pokémon, although less well, and was stronger than the more common Oran Berries.

She pulled a few off the bush and went to put them in her backpack. Then she realized it was back with Damien.

As she turned around, holding the Berries, she saw a Roselia standing behind her. She froze.

Roselia were not known to be aggressive, but they were still Poison-types, and the flowers that served as their hands hid needle-like thorns that contained potent venom. You should never take chances with a Pokémon capable of killing you, which was most of them.

Sure, Bulbasaur or Growlithe could handle it fairly easily, but Vale didn't particularly want to leave a wild Pokémon fainted and helpless. And either way, her Pokéballs were in her backpack.

As Vale watched, the Roselia tipped its head first to one side, then the other, as though confused about something. Then it dipped its head slightly to her, turned, and, with one last "Roseliiiii," walked back into the forest.

Vale was left with just one question. Had that Pokémon just bowed to her?

* * *

When she returned to where she had left Damien, she was met by a strange sight. Damien was ducking behind a tree as though hiding from something on the path. Her first thought was cultists, but Damien looked much too calm for that.

"What's going on?" she asked.

He jumped, but quickly recovered when he realized who had just come up behind him. He shushed her with a finger to his lips then beckoned her over.

Once she joined him, she had a clear view of the two Shinx on the path. The male, immediately identifiable as such because the tuft of hair on his head was larger, stood protectively a few feet from the kids' packs, while the female tried to tug open the zipper on Vale's with her teeth.

 _Well,_ Vale thought, _I've never been robbed by Pokémon before. Wait a second._

Vale pulled her Pokédex out of the case at her hip and aimed it at the male Shinx.

"Just like I thought," she whispered to Damien. "They're undernourished."

"How can they be undernourished? It's summertime in a forest."

"I don't mean that they're not eating enough. Pokémon need to keep their energy reserves up. That's almost more important than eating. A lot of Electric-types recharge themselves by absorbing excess electricity from thunderstorms. That's a lot harder to do in a forest than a field, since lightning strikes the tallest things around. They must have been abandoned here."

"Well, then, we'll have to catch them and take them to a Pokémon Center."

"The question is how."

"We battle them, of course."

"Never battle with an undernourished Pokémon," Vale corrected. "Battling takes energy, and these two are very low on that right now."

"So what do we do?"

Vale looked down at the Sitrus Berries she was still holding. _Duh._

She crouched down and rolled two of the three Berries onto the path.

The male Shinx noticed first, and padded over to where the two Berries lay on the path. He sniffed at them intently. The female noticed as well after a couple seconds and came to join him. He immediately turned and shoved her away.

"What's he doing?" Damien hissed.

"He's protecting her," Vale gasped.

"From Berries?"

"Pokémon aren't stupid, Damien. He knows those didn't get there by themselves."

The male had just bent down to take a bite when Vale stepped out of the trees. Immediately, he jumped in front of the female, ears down, back arched.

Vale took a tentative step forward. The male Shinx's whole body crackled with electricity, his eyes squeezed shut as though he was trying to use an Electric-type move but wasn't quite sure how.

"Vale," Damien hissed.

"It's alright," she said, although whether to the Shinx or to Damien was anyone's guess. She took another step.

The male Shinx stepped forward, set his paws, and took a battle stance. He was still crackling with electricity.

"Shinx, shinx," he said.

"You're in no condition to be fighting. Please, let me help you," Vale said. One more step took her to a spot only a couple of feet away from the two Shinx. She reached for one of the Berries, but froze when the male growled at her.

"Shinx. Shi, shinx," he demanded.

"Vale!" Damien cried.

"Shinx!" cried the female. She stepped past the male and looked at Vale. "Shinx. Shi, shinx. Shinx," she said.

 _Man, I wish I could understand you_ , Vale thought.

The male visibly relaxed, the electricity subsiding. Then he let out a whine and collapsed heavily into the dirt.

"Shinx!" the female cried, shaking him with her paws.

Vale gently pushed her off him. "That won't help." She picked up a Berry. "But this will."

She offered the Berry to the Shinx, who lifted his head weakly and took a bite. His strength already returning, he pulled himself up and took another bite, then another.

Vale turned to see the female Shinx devouring another Berry with equal gusto.

"Great," she said, checking them both with the Pokédex. "You guys are looking better already."

"Does that mean we can catch them now?" Damien asked, coming up.

"Only if they want to be caught."

Vale looked down to see the two Shinx conferring. After a moment, the male nudged the female toward Vale, saying, "Shinx, shinx. Shi, shinx."

Vale pulled a Pokéball out of her bag at lightly tossed it toward the female Shinx. It struck her flank and she was pulled inside. She put up little resistance and was easily caught.

"How do keep doing that?" Damien complained.

"Maybe he wants you to catch him."

The male Shinx currently seemed fairly conflicted. He was looking back and forth from the Pokéball in Vale's hand, to Damien, then down at his paws, then back to the ball.

"What's the matter," Damien asked.

On a hunch, Vale pulled out her Pokédex and re-scanned the Shinx. "I thought so," she said. "He's very close to evolving. I'll bet that he knows that and so doesn't want to be caught without a fight. He wants to see how strong you are first."

"Well, then, we can battle right here," Damien said, pulling out his Charmander's Pokéball.

"No. I'm sorry. To both of you," Vale added, looking at the Shinx. "Not until he's fully recovered."

"Fine."

"Shinx."

* * *

Caught or not, the male Shinx still decided to hitch a ride on Damien's shoulder. He seemed to understand when Vale explained that they were going to take him to the Pokémon Center, which lent weight to Vale's theory that the two of them had been abandoned by a Trainer.

The sun started to sink in the sky as they walked, and before long the stars were out.

"Wow! I've never seen so many stars," Damien said, looking up through a gap in the trees.

"You can see a lot more in the woods than you can in a town. We're actually fairly close to Midna Town right now. If we were farther away, you'd see even more."

"Wow!" he said again. "Do you know all the names?"

"Of the stars, or the constellations?"

"Constellations, of course."

"Yeah. Dad taught me."

"Your dad taught you a lot."

"We were very close. He was passionate about astronomy. Used to wake me up at 3:00 in the morning and ask if I wanted to climb up on the roof and star-gaze with him."

"So, tell me some of the names."

"Well, the first constellation everyone should know, even if it's not the easiest to find, is—you see that group of stars right there?" she pointed. "The shape that's part circle, part lopsided square?"

Damien stared for a second. "No."

"See? Right where I'm pointing."

"Oh, yeah!"

"Now you see the line of stars coming off of each corner?"

"Uh, more or less."

Vale traced the entire shape with her finger. "Congratulations, Damien. You just found the Ring of Creation."

"That's the name of a constellation?"

"Yep. That group of stars has been recognized as Arceus' Ring for well over 2000 years."

"Wow." Damien said again.

"Most constellation names come from mythology, but there's a lot of history up there too, if you know where to look."

* * *

Midna Town is averagely sized as towns go, quite a bit smaller than the major cities of any region, but still larger than Telnor Town. Midna's major draw is the Trainer's School, the only one in any region aside from the one in Sinnoh's Oreburgh City. But, with the current state of things in Torren, the School is floundering, and so is the town as a whole, since most of its economy is based around the School.

Aside from that, Midna Town has little to offer the traveling Trainer, aside from the usual. Unlike Telnor, it does have a PokéMart. It has never had a Gym, and there are few notable events in its history. But people there are friendly, and a broke Trainer can find work there more easily than anywhere else in the region (which admittedly isn't saying much), as well as handouts of food and other items.

They got to Midna Town at 10:00 at night by the clock on Vale's PokéGear.

Damien found the Pokémon Center surprisingly quickly, but, of course, it was locked. There seemed to be no nurse on duty.

Damien slammed his hand against the door. "I guess we'll have to come back tomorrow."

Vale sighed and pressed her PokéGear against the keypad scanner by the door. The door slid open.

"Or we could do that," Damien said.

"The Trainer card on your PokéGear is your ID, and one of the things that ID does is give you 24-hour access to Pokémon Centers."

"Isn't that basically asking to get robbed?"

"It's a Pokémon Center, Damien. You'd have to be out of your mind to rob one. There's nothing worth stealing except medical equipment that weighs several hundred pounds, and the Pokémon themselves, who of course are going to attack anyone who tries to steal them."

They stepped into the building, triggering the door chime.

A Chansey waddled out of a back room, scrutinized them for a second, then turned and called over her shoulder. A couple seconds later, a very tired-looking nurse came out.

"You're awfully late," she said.

"The Center is open 24/7," Vale countered. "We're not late for anything. Anyway, we need a couple of energy-deprived Pokémon seen to, and rooms for the night."

"I can do both of those," the nurse said. "It's not like I get many patients. Or guests."

Vale swung her backpack off her shoulder and fished out her Shinx's Pokéball. Damien pulled the other Shinx off his shoulder and set him on the counter.

"Doesn't he have a Pokéball?" the nurse asked, picking up an energy scanner.

"He's not mine," Damien explained. "He insisted on a battle before he'd let me catch him, and Vale here refused to allow it until he was recovered."

"A wise move," the nurse said as she scanned the Shinx. "How do you…Wait, you're Vale Darcy, aren't you? I heard about your parents. That must be so hard to bear."

"I'm…managing," Vale lied.

"Meena was a dear friend of mine, you know? Most of the town is in mourning."

The female Shinx was easy to heal. Since she was in a Pokéball, a quick trip through the Center's healing machine soon fixed her right up. The male was trickier. Since he was technically still wild, more traditional healing methods would be necessary. He was also lower on energy to begin with.

"I'll want to keep him overnight. It may take a while to get him back to full."

"Okay," Damien said.

"Now about your rooms."

* * *

Vale flopped onto the bed in her room. _Two days down,_ she thought.

She sat up and unzipped her backpack, pulling out her Pokéballs.

"Come on out, everybody," she said. Her three Pokémon—her Pokémon!—materialized on the floor. Growlithe immediately jumped onto the bed to lick her face. Shinx followed him, but once she was up, she stopped and pawed at the mattress as though wondering how anything could be this soft. Bulbasaur simply yawned.

"Get some sleep, all of you. We start training for real in the morning."

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Vale called, as she kicked off her shoes.

Damien pushed the door open.

"Damien? What is it?"

"I'm scared."

"Oh?"

"I mean, we could get killed."

"That's always a possibility, yes."

"Aren't you scared?"

"Of course I am. I've managed to piss off at least two cults this week."

"How do you deal with it?"

"I made the same decision as every other aspiring Trainer in Torren has to make sooner or later. I decided that the risk of dying isn't a good reason not to live."

" I suppose I'll have to decide that too, then."

"Are you really committed to taking this trip?"

"I…" He paused. "Yes. Yes, I am."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Damien said with conviction. "One hundred percent."

* * *

 **AN: The journey begins...for real this time.**

 **Lots of information in this chapter. We finally get the details about the Edict. Two things I want to mention about this:**  
 **1) Yes, Legendary Pokemon can die, but they have to take a lot of damage first. Or, in the case of the Team Flare incident, have their energy systematically drained. Also, in my headcanon for this story, Yveltal is basically the Pokemon version of the Grim Reaper.**  
 **2) A lot of people discount Team Flare for some reason. I honestly think they're a contender for being the worst evil team in Pokemon. And I don't been "worst" as in "bad at being evil." The other teams all have a clear goal that they are working towards and don't really try to hide that. But Lysandre...is just a little odd. He keeps talking about creating a more beautiful world, but his answer to that is apparently to destroy the world and start over from the ground up. He's completely insane, and that's why he's the worst of the bunch.**

 **A bit about Pokemon energy. The franchise doesn't really explain where Pokemon get their power from, so I decided that for myself. What I decided was basically that Pokemon have channels of energy flowing through their bodies. Anyone familiar with east Asian ideas about the body would recognize it as chi flow, and there are points in a Pokemon's body where the channels converge that are basically chakras.**

 **I threw in a few paragraphs in present tense to basically describe the town. I think I'm going to do that for every major location, kind of like I did in the first chapter. I don't know about actual physical descriptions of the towns yet. Adding them may go on my editing list for this week.**

 **Yes, I know Vale is assembling her team very quickly. I don't really see anything wrong with that. When I play Pokemon, I sometimes have a full team before the first gym. Also, the journey is not the focus of this fic, as you'll see a few chapters down the road, so I need to build the teams quickly.**

 **Another star-gazing scene. I figured Damien's never been outside Telnor Town for an extended period before, so seeing all those stars would be a completely new experience. And some more character development.**

 **Also lots of foreshadowing in this chapter. Be advised.**


	9. Chapter 8: Battles and Revelations

The Mudkip gave one last gasp and collapsed. It's Trainer recalled it and went running off toward the Trainer's School's healing center.

"Nice job, Shinx," Vale said. She glanced down at her Pokédex, which she was holding in her left hand. "And you've learned Charge. Because _that's_ a useful move."

Shinx still had a ways to go before picking up Bite, which usually came before learning Spark.

 _Spark's the move I really need. Charge doesn't even raise attack power, which makes no sense._

"All right. Who's next? Vale asked. She'd headed over to the Trainer's School as early as she could, but it was still close to noon already.

A girl with red hair stepped up. "Ralts, let's go," she called.

Vale checked Shinx's energy levels on her Pokédex. They still looked quite high. "Stay in, Shinx," she called.

 _Ralts, nice,_ Vale thought. _I believe they get both Double Team and Teleport at low levels, though. This could be tricky._

"Shinx, Tackle," she ordered.

"Teleport, Ralts." The little Psychic-type's image started to disappear, but it was still solid when Shinx hit it.

"If you want to use Teleport to dodge, you should train Ralts to do it more quickly."

"Noted," the other Trainer snapped. "Double Team."

"Crap," Vale said. "Tackle again, quickly."

This time, Shinx missed.

"Is that your only offensive move or something?" taunted the other girl.

"Actually, it is," Vale replied.

"Oh, well, in that case, Confusion!"

Ralts' eyes glowed pink. Shinx staggered but recovered. Vale glanced down at her Pokédex. Shinx's energy was now below half.

"Tackle!" she ordered. Shinx leapt at Ralts and sank her teeth into the other Pokémon.

"That wasn't Tackle," said the redhead.

"Bite, yes!" Vale punched the air.

Ralts wasn't moving. At all.

 _Did we flinch it?_ Vale thought. "Bite it again, Shinx."

Shinx did. Ralts fainted.

"What just happened?" the girl asked.

"You lost," said the girl's teacher, who was refereeing the matches.

"I…she cheated!" the girl accused, pointing at Vale.

"No, I didn't," Vale said. "I just got lucky. The move Bite has a 30% chance to flinch the target. That's what happened."

"That's ridiculous!"

"Phoebe!" the teacher said. "The first thing any Trainer has to learn is how to lose."

"Fine," Phoebe snapped. "Ralts, return."

* * *

Damien's battle with the male Shinx took place out front of the Pokémon Center. Not the greatest place for a battle, but battling in the middle of a town wasn't necessarily illegal, so long as safety precautions were taken and the battle had a certified referee. Also, this was the best place to accommodate the Pokémon Center's nurse, who had agreed to monitor the battle in accordance with various laws about battling.

"Charmander, go," Damien called, sending out his starter. The appearance of the Delta Pokémon on the sidewalk caused a bit of a stir among the people who had come to watch.

Shinx set his feet.

"Night Shade."

Shinx leapt at Charmander, passing through the purple cloud of the Night Shade and then Charmander, who, being a Ghost-type, was immune to Tackle.

Shinx staggered a bit as he landed, no doubt a bit surprised to go right through his target.

"Behind you, Charmander. Night Shade, again."

Charmander fired another purple cloud. Shinx leapt straight through it again, this time using Bite.

"Charmander, look out!" Damien cried.

Too late. Shinx bit down. Charmander cried out.

Both Pokémon looked a bit drained. Was now a good time to try catching Shinx? Damien only had one Pokéball, given to him by Vale that morning. If Shinx broke out, he'd be out of luck.

Then something occurred to him. He remembered Vale using her Pokédex to check the Shinx's energy levels back in the woods. He quickly whipped out his own and scanned both Pokémon as he remembered her doing. Both were a little under half.

"Night Shade. One more time," he called.

Yet another purple cloud. This time Shinx focused on getting away from it, but it still connected and was closely followed by a thrown Pokéball.

Maybe Shinx really did want to be caught. Maybe he was simply too weak to break out. Either way, the ball _ping_ ed quickly, indicating a successful capture.

Damien picked it up. "Come on out, Shinx," he called.

A beam of red light shot from the ball and coalesced into…

…not Shinx.

"Wow. You evolved!" Damien cried. "Welcome to the team, Luxio."

Then he looked for Charmander and saw that Shinx wasn't the only one to evolve. Charmander, now Charmeleon, was a bit taller than before, with a prominent spike on the back of his head and a larger tail flame. The pattern of bones that formed his body was different too. The bones that formed his chest now resembled a ribcage, with a cavity visible between the bones that seemed quite empty.

"Psst!" called a voice.

Damien turned and saw a man standing apart from the onlookers beckoning to him. He walked over.

"Were you talking to me?" he asked.

"Yep. Here's the deal, kid. You look like a Trainer with a bit of potential, so here's something you might be interested in."

* * *

Vale faced the last student. She'd already beaten nine of them. Not all had taken the defeat well. Some, like Phoebe, had called it unfair and accused Vale of cheating. Others had pouted. A couple had promised to get better but had looked ready to cry.

Her team had come a long way. Shinx had picked up Spark in the last battle, meaning she was on the verge of evolving. Bulbasaur seemed very close as well. Growlithe hadn't done as well. Far too many students had used Water-types for Vale to feel comfortable using him in many battles, but his moves had gotten stronger and he'd picked up Odor Sleuth.

She sent out Bulbasaur for the last battle, hoping he would evolve.

"Machop!" called the other Trainer.

 _What the heck is he doing? Surely he's had time to figure out Bulbasaur's Typing,_ she thought.

"Are you sure about that?" Vale asked.

"I have a plan," he reassured.

"Alright then. Psybeam," Vale ordered, calling the move Bulbasaur had picked up in his last battle.

"Take it, Machop." Machop took a firm stance. The beam hit the Fighting-type in the chest. He staggered but stayed standing. "Now, Revenge!"

Machop leapt forward delivering a punishing blow to Bulbasaur's chest, a blow that he endured easily.

"What?" the boy asked. "I don't understand. Why didn't it work?"

"Well, what was your plan?"

"Have Machop take the hit using a Focus Sash, then use Revenge and return double damage."

"I see two things wrong with that plan," Vale said.

"What?"

"I'm not saying you didn't do a good job planning for the battle. First off, if Machop knows Revenge, he's probably a bit more experienced than Bulbasaur, meaning he probably wouldn't have gone down in one hit. So the Focus Sash, wherever you even got one, was unnecessary. Second, Revenge doesn't return double damage.

"It doesn't?"

"No. It's the strength of the move that doubles. Revenge is still affected by Type effectiveness, and Bulbasaur doubly resists it."

"Oh. But I got his Type right. Psychic/Fairy, right?"

"Yep."

"I guess this means I loose, huh?"

"We can…"

Bulbasaur suddenly started to glow. After a couple seconds, it subsided, revealing that Bulbasaur was now Ivysaur. He was quite a bit larger than before. Is body was the same shade of pink, now with purple spots on his legs. His bulb was now a large flower bud, purple with pink and green spots. The leaves surrounding it were green, with purple and pink spots at the tips.

"…call it a draw," Vale finished. "We accomplished what I'd hoped would happen this battle, which was getting Bulbasaur to evolve. And I see no reason to faint your Machop for no reason."

The boy recalled his Machop as the teacher stepped toward and handed Vale a wad of Poké.

"Here you go," she said. " What I promised you for helping with Battle Class today. Ten Poké for each student you fought."

"Thank you." Vale pocketed the money. "I don't want to seem ungrateful, but I was hoping to get a little more experience for my Pokémon than this. Is there anyone else in town I could challenge?"

"I do have one more student. Her name's Nora, and she's a very skilled Trainer. She doesn't show up to class much, and honestly there's not much more I could teach her. She trains alone, usually in Telnor Cave. But I should warn you. She has very strong Pokémon, some of them evolved."

"I like a challenge," Vale said.

* * *

Vale was just leaving the school when Damien came running up screaming, "Vale, Vale!"

He skidded to a stop right in front of her.

"What's going on, Damien?" she asked.

"Check out what somebody just gave me!" He swung his backpack off his shoulder and pulled out a Pokéball.

"Beldum, come on out," he called.

"B-b-b-beldum?" Vale asked in disbelief.

The blue Steel-type materialized, floating in midair.

"I think I've got to step up my game," Vale muttered.

"Totally cool, isn't it?" Damien asked.

"Potentially, once it evolves. This Beldum is actually going to be very difficult to train up."

"Why?"

"Because, unless you get really lucky and find a move tutor, Beldum can only learn one move. And that's Take Down."

"Recoil damage, right?"

"Yep."

"Aw, man!"

"I'll help you. It's all right." Then Vale thought of another problem. "Who gave you this Pokémon?"

"I don't know. Some guy who was watching when I caught Shinx. He's Luxio now, by the way. Charmander evolved too."

"Some random guy gives you a Pokémon and you just accepted it?"

"Yeah. Did you hear what I said about Shinx and Charmander?"

"Congratulations, but let's focus on the Beldum. Do you realize that this Pokémon could have been bred illegally, and you could be fined?"

"No!" Damien cried in horror. "What do I do?"

"We take it to the Pokémon Center and get a genetic scan done. The question is how much that's going to cost."

* * *

"How is this worse than Delta Pokémon?" Damien asked as they walked to the Pokémon Center.

"Creating Deltas was banned because it's basically playing god with Pokémon genetics. Owning one is theoretically legal. But when a Pokémon is illegally bred, it's the result of a cross with a Ditto. Breeding with Ditto can have weird effects on the offspring. Ownership of these Pokémon is banned for several reasons. Best-case scenario: you've got an unconventional Pokémon that could give you an unfair advantage in battles. Worst-case scenario: you've got a Pokémon with a major genetic disorder."

"Eek," was Damien's only response.

They arrived back at the Center and went inside, getting through the door much more easily now, since it was mid-afternoon. The nurse, a different one than the previous night, was at the counter.

"What an I do for you?" the nurse asked.

"Some creepy guy gave my friend a Beldum," Vale explained. "And I want to make sure it's legal."

"Beldum, huh?" the nurse asked.

"Yes," Vale said. "Is there a problem?"

"Well, you should know that there are legal instances of Ditto breeding. Since Metagross can only breed with Ditto, it's exempt from the law."

Vale smacked her forehead. "I'm a moron."

"There's no way to tell if your friend's Beldum is legal or not, because there's going to be Ditto in its genetic code regardless."

"I feel like a freaking idiot," Vale said.

Damien patted her on the shoulder. "Everyone makes mistakes, Vale."

* * *

Vale left Damien alone after that, suggesting he go to the Trainer's School. She had some errands to run before she went to Telnor Cave to challenge this Nora girl.

The first place she went was her mother's clinic to drop off Verbena, which she did as quickly as possible, hoping to avoid the pity of the other nurses. She wasn't completely over her parents' deaths. No sane person would be. But everyone so far who'd tried to make her feel better had only managed to make it worse.

And there were a lot of those. Her mother had been well known in Midna Town, and her father was a former Gym leader. Even people she'd never met had recognized her from the picture that had apparently been on the news and had come up to her to give the obligatory "I'm sorry."

" ** _Three thousand years and I still don't understand that custom,_** " Mew said telepathically as Vale left the clinic.

"Don't worry. It confuses me too," Vale whispered back.

Next on Vale's agenda was a bit of shopping. She started at the PokéMart. She was good on healing items, but she wanted to buy a few more Pokéballs. She considered buying ten, in order to get the bonus Premier Ball, but decided against it and bought five instead, for a total of 15 Poké, as well as an Ultra Ball, just in case, for 12 Poké. At first glance, it didn't make sense that something as high-tech as a Pokéball would be sold so cheaply. Vale supposed it probably had something to do with the fact that the balls had been mass-produced for centuries and were now ridiculously common.

The next place she went was a Trainer's apparel store down the street. She needed some way to carry her Pokémon so that she could get to them easily. She had always hated the way standard Trainer's belts looked, and so settled on a small over-the-shoulder bag instead, big enough to carry six Pokéballs with a small amount of room to spare, for 25 Poké.

With 173 Poké left, Vale was ready to head to Telnor Cave.

* * *

She left most of her stuff in her room at the Pokémon Center, making the trip out to the cave with only her new bag, containing her three Pokémon, a couple of spare balls in case she ran across something she wanted to catch, and an apple in case she got hungry.

Telnor Cave was known for being difficult to navigate. Shade Woods was called a natural maze by some, but the cave was worse, because it was literally pitch black in parts. While the cave served as an alternate route between Midna Town and Telnor Town, only the desperate or the stupidly brave used it.

Vale got to the Midna Town entrance after about forty minutes of walking. She was about to enter when Mew appeared beside her.

" **Be careful in there,** " he warned. " **This place is dangerous.** "

Vale nodded in agreement, but strongly suspected that simply giving an arguably unnecessary warning wasn't the reason Mew had shown up.

They entered the cave together, and it took Vale less than two minutes to realize that she'd forgotten her flashlight at home.

Mew promptly conjured up a Flash, holding the light in his palm.

"Thanks," Vale said.

" **Not a problem.** "

She kept walking through the cave, careful not to stray beyond the circular area illuminated by Mew's Flash. After about ten minutes of walking in silence, girl and Pokémon entered a large cavern, one they weren't alone in.

The floor of this chamber sloped heavily downward, and at someone point, someone or something had formed it into rough stairs leading down from where Vale had just entered to a mostly flat area.

Standing in this area was a girl a couple of years younger than Vale, wearing a green shirt and blue jean shorts. Her hair was green too and was loosely tied back out of her face.

There was a Pokémon hovering beside her. This Pokémon was also green and had certain similarities to Mew, particularly in the shape of its hands. It was slightly smaller, with a rather large head that was vaguely teardrop-shaped, sloping back to a point. It had huge, blue eyes, ringed in black, transparent wings, and antennae with blue tips.

" **Celebi,** " Mew muttered.

It may not have mattered whether or not the girl heard him. Either way, she whirled around, reaching for a Pokéball.

" **Hold it, Nora,** " Celebi said. Her voice was not quite as high-pitched as one might expect but was still quite high.

"What?" the girl asked.

" **What are you doing here, Celebi?** " Mew asked. " **You're the last one of us I'd guess would risk Arceus' anger by breaking the Edict and coming down here.** "

" **I have a loophole,** " Celebi pronounced.

" **Really?** "

"Can someone please explain what's going on?" Vale asked. "One Legend I could handle, but two? I thought you guys weren't supposed to come to our world anymore."

" **So this is her,** " Celebi said, looking at Vale. " **This is the one.** "

"The one what?" Vale asked.

Mew made a frantic "cut it out" gesture at Celebi, slicing his hand across his throat repeatedly.

" **She has a right to know, Mew,** " Celebi said.

" **We've never told any of them before,** " Mew countered.

"Tell me what?" Vale demanded. Nora shrugged.

" **We have to tell her,** " Celebi insisted.

" **I swear Shaymin's becoming a bad influence on you,** " Mew muttered.

" **Vale,** " Celebi said. " **Does the word 'Chosen' mean anything to you? Mythologically speaking, I mean.** "

"Yeah. I read myths all the time as a kid. Supposedly, when the world faces some kind of major trial, Arceus raises up a champion to…the story wasn't particularly clear on that actually. But supposedly the hero kids who stopped all the evil teams were Chosen."

"Not all of them, actually," Nora broke in. "Red was. Brendan too. Along with one of the Sinnoh three—no one can seem to agree on who—and Serena, from the Fab Five."

"But that's just a story, isn't it?"

"Not according to Celebi," Nora said.

" **It's real,** " Mew confirmed. " **But we're not supposed to** ** _tell_** **the kids.** " He glared at Celebi.

"And you think _I'm_ one?" Vale asked.

" **Tell me, Vale. Do Pokémon ever behave strangely around you?** " Celebi asked.

"Strangely how?" Vale asked, already suspecting the answer was yes.

" **Being particularly attracted to you, or showing you unusual reverence.** "

 _That Roselia…_ "A Roselia bowed to me yesterday."

" **Being Chosen leaves a mark, one that we call the Spark. Pokémon will notice it. Even if they don't understand completely what they're seeing, they'll recognize that you are something special.** "

" **That's why I came to rescue you,** " Mew added. " **Arceus would have my head on a platter if I let you get hurt.** "

Celebi laughed. " **I don't think he'd be quite** ** _that_** **angry.** "

"Well, tell him to find someone else," Vale interrupted. "I don't believe in all that destiny stuff."

"You don't get to just turn something like this down. You can't say no to a god," Nora said.

" ** _Celebi, I need to talk to you in private,_** " Mew said.

" **Talk to her, Nora,** " Celebi said. She followed Mew into the corner of the cave.

Vale climbed down the stairs. "So, Celebi, huh?"

"When did you catch Mew?" Nora asked.

"I didn't. He saved my life just a few days ago and has been popping in and out ever since."

"That's what it's been like with me and Celebi. I did catch her, but only to keep her safe. Best way I could return the favor."

"She's been protecting you? For how long?"

"Since I was a little girl. I ran away from home very young."

"She took care of you," Vale guessed.

"Yep, and did a better job than my real parents."

"Wow."

"How can you say you don't want this?" Nora asked.

"What? To be Chosen? Let's just say Arceus isn't high on my list of favorite people—or beings—right now."

"If I could, I'd take it from you in a heartbeat."

"Why?"

"I want to fight. The cults, the government. Something has to be done."

"I think I may have found a kindred spirit."

"But I'm scared."

"Me too." _And confused. What do I really want more? To beat Jaern's challenge, or to get him out of office._

"They could kill me."

"I suppose that explains why you're training in a cave," Vale said.

"That's for Celebi. This is the only place anywhere near Midna Town where she can safely help me."

* * *

" **Looks like they're getting along well,** " Celebi said, looking back toward Nora and Vale.

" **What do think you're doing, Celebi?** " Mew asked.

" **I told you. I have a loophole.** "

" **Please elaborate. It had better be good.** "

" **My job is to protect the forest and everything in it, right?** "

" **Yeah.** "

" **Well, that includes lost travelers. He said that explicitly once.** "

" **She doesn't look very lost to me,** " Mew said.

" **No, but she was when I found her.** "

" **Shaymin** ** _is_** **rubbing off on you.** "

" **I'm following the Creed.** "

" **Doesn't look like her life is in danger right now.** "

" **Can you stop? Her dad was abusive. I made a judgment call and helped her run away. He easily could have killed her.** "

" **And now?** "

" **She was six. When I helped her get out of there, I acquired an obligation to take care of her.** "

" **Even now?** " Mew asked.

" **Yes,** " Celebi said firmly. " **Even now.** "

" **I don't think I've ever seen you so sure of anything. You w…** " He'd been about to say "You win," when his Psychic sense spotted something in Celebi's energy signature, which could only mean one thing. " **You let her catch you?** " he demanded.

" **It was a better choice than the alternative. I do trust her, Mew.** "

" **That's the old system. Too many humans have betrayed our trust.** **Did she even battle you first?** "

" **I let her catch me without one. Her team was too inexperienced, and she wanted to return the favor for all that time I'd taken care of her.** "

" **I have to tell him, Celebi.** "

" **I think he knows already.** "

" **Then why hasn't he made you stop helping her?** "

Celebi shrugged. " **Beats me.** "

* * *

Vale and Nora left the cave while Mew and Celebi were still talking, and they headed back to town together. Vale's mind was running rampant over the whole "Chosen" thing, and she did not feel like she could put her all into a battle when her mind was elsewhere.

As they re-entered Midna Town, a green blur shot past them.

"What was that?" Vale asked.

Nora shrugged.

After a couple seconds, one of the boys from the Trainer's School ran past.

"Somebody catch that Snivy!" he cried.

"Snivy?" Vale said. "That's a really rare Pokémon."

That was true. All regions had breeding programs intended to make sure that the populations of popular species, especially the regional starters, weren't depleted by all the Trainers trying to catch them. Unova had been late in implementing their own programs, and the populations of some species, including the Snivy evolution line, had never fully recovered. And all the regional starters tended to be rare outside their native regions to begin with.

"I'm going to catch it," Vale pronounced.

"You're welcome to try," Nora said. "That Snivy has been wreaking havoc in town for months now. Most of the kids from the Trainer's School tried to catch it. As did some local veterans. It ran circles around them all."

"Well, I'm going to try too," Vale said, running off after it.

* * *

She ran between the buildings, chasing the boy more than the Snivy, but she quickly got lost. She was behind the PokéMart, she knew that much. But where she was relative to her target, she had no idea.

She turned around, intending to make her way to a more open part of town, when she saw the Snivy in the alley behind her. It stared at her for a second, then leapt upward onto a roof. She ran down the alley, turned a corner, and saw the Snivy standing on the roof of the PokéMart.

Vale pulled out Shinx's Pokéball. "Battle me."

The Snivy jumped off the roof and landed about ten feet in front of her.

"Go, Shinx," she cried.

Shinx landed on the field, and almost immediately the Snivy glowed red.

Vale thought for a second. _Okay. The default Ability for the Shinx line is Intimidate. If Shinx has it, then it would activate as soon as she entered battle. So…_

"Holy Arceus," Vale gasped. "It's Contrary."

"Do you know how rare that is?" asked Nora, who'd just come running up.

"Yeah, I do. But that's the only real explanation here. And it would also partially explain why this Snivy is so hard to catch. If someone tried to use Sticky Web or String Shot to slow it down…"

"…it would get faster instead. Makes sense," Nora finished.

Snivy flicked a Vine Whip at Shinx.

"Bite," Vale ordered.

Shinx sunk her teeth into the vine. Snivy cried out, but then it brought its second vine around, whacking Shinx in the head. She let go and staggered back.

"Tackle," Vale ordered.

Shinx leapt at Snivy, but the Vine Whip hit her and knocked her to the ground well before she reached him.

 _Shinx can't win this,_ Vale thought. _This Snivy is too good with those Vine Whips. And the boosted attack…_

Vale reached into her satchel and pulled out Ivysaur's Pokéball.

"Shinx, get back. Ivysaur, go!"

Ivysaur landed on the field as Shinx jumped back into her own Pokéball.

"Confusion," Vale ordered.

Ivysaur's eyes glowed, and Snivy began to direct his Vine Whips at the corner of the PokéMart.

 _Yes. He's confused._

Vale reached back into her satchel and pulled out the Ultra Ball. She didn't want to waste it on a Snivy, but she did really want to catch it. She threw the ball.

It hit, and Snivy, too confused to realize what had happened, was pulled inside. The ball wobbled back and forth frantically for a few seconds and then was still.

Vale walked over and picked it up.

"Snivy, come on out," she called.

Snivy, no longer confused, materialized. He looked at Vale, then at the Ultra Ball in her hand.

"Snivy, snivy," he said.

"I can't understand you," Vale said.

" ** _He said, 'You caught me, fair and square. What would you ask of me, mistress?_** '" It was Mew.

"That seems a bit formal," Vale whispered.

" ** _Snivy usually talk like that. You know, you don't have to speak out loud to talk to me._** "

 _Why didn't you tell me that sooner?_ she thought.

" ** _Didn't see the need._** "

 _Mew! Asshole!_

He was gone.

"Anyway," Vale said to the Snivy. "I'm no one's mistress. Call me Vale. Oh, and welcome to the team."

A man in a long coat and hat shoved his way through the crowd.

"Nice job," he said. "But how much would you ask for him?"

 _Is this guy serious?_ she thought.

Snivy readied his Vine Whips.

"No, Snivy," she said, her voice dangerously smooth. "When I need you to whack someone, I'll tell you."

She then punched the man in the face. He fell, landing flat on his back.

"How dare you!" she cried. "Pokémon aren't items to be bought and sold. They're living creatures, and they have feelings."

"All you had to say was 'He's not for sale,'" said the man. He got up and disappeared back into the crowd.

"Asshole!" Nora called after him.

* * *

Vale took Shinx and Snivy to the Pokémon Center to get healed up. The scanner on the healing machine revealed that Shinx had evolved.

While there, Vale realized she was starving, and with good reason, since she skipped lunch and didn't eat much breakfast.

Fortunately, Pokémon Centers provided free meals as part of their one-day package, which provided free room, board, and meals to traveling Trainers for their first 24 hours in town. After that, you had to pay, unless you went to the local Gym and scheduled a battle with the leader before the 24 hours expired. Of course, Midna Town had never had a Gym.

Vale and Nora just happened to run into Damien in the Center's cafeteria, which triggered a round of introductions.

The three of them ate together, trading stories from that day, or just general stories. Damien said that he wouldn't be leaving town with Vale. He was going to stay for another day or two to brush up his skills.

Vale cleaned out her room at the Pokémon Center immediately after dinner, wanting to avoid even the slightest possibility of having to pay for it. It was already 8:00 and she guessed the free period would run out at 10:00. That would have it exactly 24 hours. She made plans to sleep at Nora's place.

* * *

When Nora had told Vale that she could crash at her place, Vale had expected that place to be at the Trainer's School dormitory where the rest of the students slept. It wasn't.

Nora's apartment was located in the sketchiest-looking apartment building Vale had ever seen. The front door of the apartment looked like it was going to fall off the hinges any day now, and the front door of the building as a whole wasn't much better. There were some sketchy characters hanging around the lobby, which gave Vale the creeps.

The apartment itself was in bad shape too. For starters, it was essentially a two-room apartment. One room contained the bed, a cramped kitchen, and a tiny dining table. The other was the bathroom. The bed creaked was Nora sat down on it, and the chairs looked like they would collapse if anyone tried to use them for the intended purpose.

"How do you put up with this?" Vale asked.

"I know it's pretty creepy…"

"And tiny," Vale interrupted.

"And tiny, but it's still better than my old house. And it's cheap. This way I can put my money into training my team, not to mention food and other things. If I had to pay rent much higher than this, I might not be able to eat some nights. And if you're worried about safety, I've got Celebi."

"How long have you been living here?"

"Couple months."

"And how did you get that landlord to rent to you? You're what? Thirteen?"

"Fourteen. And that doesn't really matter. Torren law at least implies that anyone with a valid Trainer card is considered an adult in legal matters, so long as that person is at least thirteen."

"I suppose I should have known that. That law is the only reason I'm not currently in an orphanage somewhere."

"Come again?"

"The Cult of Darkrai killed my parents."

"So that's why you want to fight back," Nora guessed.

"They have to pay," Vale pronounced.

"I agree, but not right now. Right now I say early to bed and early to rise gets us on our way that much quicker."

"Our?"

"I'm coming with you, of course."

"All right, I suppose."

Nora pulled four Pokéballs out of her bag. "Come on out, guys," she called.

Her Pokémon materialized. Vale gasped.

Leavanny.

Quilava.

Floette.

Honedge.

"Holy crap!" Vale cried. "Everyone's got better Pokémon than me all of a sudden."

"They're not that great," Nora said.

"Are you kidding?" Vale said. "Once these guys are fully evolved, you could have a really strong team."

"Maybe, with the right moves. But TMs are crazy expensive, I have no clue where to find a move tutor, and no one has any egg moves. I'm going to have to buy two evolution stones as it is."

Quilava was sniffing Vale curiously. Floette lay back on one of the chairs, her flower across her chest. Honedge dropped out of the air and landed on a different chair, looking like a perfectly innocuous sword—or at least as close to innocuous as a sword could ever be. Leavanny pressed the button on the side of her ball with her foot and jumped back inside.

"She prefers to sleep in there for some reason," Nora commented.

" I think that might be a thing with Grass-types," Vale said, remembering Verbena. "Anyway, every Trainer is in the same boat in Torren right now. I suppose you should meet my team, if we're going to be traveling together."

Vale released her own Pokémon. Growlithe immediately assumed a battle stance across from Quilava, as the two Fire-types sized each other up. Snivy readied his Vine Whips, just in case. Luxio stared around the room as though wondering how they'd possibly ended up in such a dinky apartment. Ivysaur just yawned.

"Get some sleep, everybody," Vale said, addressing Nora's Pokemon as well as her own. "We leave first thing in the morning."

 _Three days down_ , she thought. _Only eleven to go._

* * *

 **AN: Vale spends a day training and makes a new friend, while Damien get two additional Pokemon.**

 **I am sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up. First, the Blinding White Light edit took about twice as long as I expected. Then Tuesday I had a migraine and didn't want to work on it. Then I realized that I needed to do some logistical work regarding the Pokemon's movesets before I went much further, so that occupied the next couple of days.**

 **Not as much to talk about here as in previous chapters. If anyone's wondering how Shinx had to learn how to bite something, it goes back to what I said about energy in my last author's note. Simply sinking your teeth into something is different from channeling energy through your teeth.**

 **As to how Vale made so much money in one day, I'll admit that $100 dollars in a day might be a little much, but some people in Torren still do have the money to pay that well.**

 **If anyone noticed that Vale's battle with Snivy was illegal, since there wasn't a referee, props to you. The police probably wouldn't care though, since it involved fairly weak Pokemon and no major damage was done. The catch is legal, so don't worry about that.**

 **Vale's mistake regarding Beldum was the result of my own oversight.**

 **The concept of the Chosen is sort of in the game, but I've changed it a bit. If anyone's wondering about what the Creed is, it's in the background information on my deviantArt.**

 **Celebi (and sort of Shaymin as well) get introduced in this chapter. They're best friends but polar opposites in a lot of ways. I can't wait until I introduce Shaymin for real. She's probably my favorite character.**

 **Also, I tried to give each Pokemon a distinct personality. In my head canon, a Pokemon's Nature is basically just it's personality. I've seen people do that before, and I love the idea.**


	10. Chapter 9: Mother's Love

The path from Midna Town to Suntouched City was clearly marked and ran through grassy plains, rather than forest. This leg of the journey was both easier and harder than the first leg through Shade Woods. Easier because the chance of getting lost was essentially zero. Harder because Vale didn't know it anywhere near as well.

She'd never been farther on foot than Midna and Telnor Town. Her one trip to Helios City with her father had been entirely on dragon-back. Racer was more than strong enough to carry them both.

When Vale said they'd be leaving first thing in the morning, she'd meant it. She and Nora were up and on their way out of town before the sun was even up.

Vale took this opportunity to pick her new friend's brain regarding a few things.

"How did you know so much about the Chosen, anyway?" she asked.

"I worked in the Utira Town library for a year," Nora said, like it wasn't anything impressive. Which it was. Utira Town, located just past Helios City and once home to a Psychic-type Gym themed around knowledge and the mind, was the main center for learning in all of Torren. The library was associated with Utira University, which was known for sponsoring groundbreaking Pokémon-related research. It was also regarded as a landmark case of science and religion working together, as more than one of the members of the original board of directors had been a priest of Uxie. Not a huge deal, considering the nature of the cooperation, but it was the first documented instance of such a thing.

"How did you manage that?" Vale asked, amazed.

"Celebi."

"How?"

"The same way she helped with everything else until I was thirteen. By Psychically suggesting that I'm older than I look."

"And they didn't ask to see a Trainer card?"

"These days someone showing up at the library asking for a job is a rare thing. I honestly think they were too excited to have even one applicant that age didn't even matter."

"Hey, I always had a healthy love of books, even if my friends didn't. Dad had a small library in his study, and I read everything. I've got a couple of books in my backpack right now. Wouldn't leave home without at least one."

" _I_ had unrestricted access to the biggest library in the region for a year."

" ** _Are you two really comparing libraries?_** " Mew chimed in.

 _Maybe,_ Vale thought back.

"So, how much did you find out about the Edict?" Vale asked.

"Why are you asking?"

"I've always been curious."

"Did you ask Mew?"

"He didn't tell me much. He told me the story from a Legendary perspective and why Team Flare was the straw that broke the Camerupt's back, so to speak. But that's it."

"Well, it's not like we can find much out. Everything I read said the same thing. It was passed to punish us."

"Same goes for everything I read."

"Did you ask Celebi?"

"Wouldn't say a word on it."

"Seems like that's a trend. I'm surprised Mew told as much as he did."

"Why do you reckon they're starting to come back now?" Nora asked.

"Come again."

"No one's seen or heard anything from any Legend for two centuries. Now suddenly they're showing up again."

"You heard them in the cave. Mew's here to keep an eye on me, because I've got some kind of destiny, and Celebi's bending the rules."

"For some reason," Nora said, "I just get the feeling it's more than that."

* * *

They walked on, sometimes traveling in silence for the better part of an hour before one of the girls came up with something else to talk about. They started seeing herds of Pokémon on the grasslands. Tauros and Donphan mingled with deer. The deer kept a wary distance, while most of the Pokémon didn't seem to care. These were powerful creatures, after all, and safety in numbers applied to Pokémon too.

Nora finally found something to say. "So why do you hate Jaern?" she asked.

"The money. Half the country's starving, and instead of trying to alleviate the real problem, he goes and dumps outlandish amounts of money into unnecessary public works projects disguised as anti-cult initiatives."

"What's the real problem?" Nora asked.

"I hope that's a rhetorical question."

Nora nodded.

"Poverty, of course," Vale went on. "Although the League bailing twenty years ago doesn't help."

"Is there anything he could really do about the League? They won't come back until the cults are dealt with, if at all."

"Not having a League gives kids a lot more incentive to join the cults. It's a spiral."

"So, Miss All-the-Answers, how do we get the League back?"

"We don't. Not the main League. Running a Gym is entirely possible without League backing. A friend of my dad's is doing it right now. And with all the reading you've done, I assume you're aware of the Saffron Gym dispute from about 600 years ago."

"Of course."

"Yeah. Those guys kept running their Gym even though all the League's funding went to Sabrina. My dad's friend charges Trainers who want to challenge him. Not too much money, but it's enough to cover most of the Gym's expenses. And if a Gym circuit was reestablished in Torren, there'd be a lot more challengers, even if the expenses ran higher too."

"Would people be willing to pay to challenge a Gym?"

"East—that's Dad's friend—has never had an issue. Honestly, with the number of influential people in Torren who want the League back, even a not-for-profit Gym circuit dependent on donations wouldn't be entirely implausible at this point."

"I'm assuming, when you said public works projects, you meant the Tower," Nora said, redirecting the conversation slightly.

"More specifically the monstrosity on the roof."

"Yeah."

"Have you noticed that no one seems to have a problem with the expense of that thing?"

"No, actually," Nora said.

"I hope you're joking," Vale said.

"No, I'm not. I have a problem with it, but I've been living in a virtual tenement without much access to the news. I just assumed the press was upset about it same as me."

"They're not. I've been following stories about Jaern for the last year, and the press never has anything bad to say about him at all."

"How is that possible?" Nora interrupted.

"And people just _buy_ it," Vale finished. "I have no idea how it's possible."

"Have you tried asking Mew?"

"I doubt he'd care. Sometimes I don't think any of them care about us anymore."

" ** _Then why am I here?_** " Celebi chimed in telepathically.

" ** _Just for the record, no. I don't have a clue either,_** " Mew added.

"He says he doesn't know," Vale translated.

* * *

Vale let Snivy and Growlithe out around lunchtime. Snivy immediately jumped on her shoulder, while Growlithe tagged along behind. Nora followed suit, letting out Leavanny and Quilava.

"So, training?" Nora asked.

"Mine need a lot more training than yours," Vale pointed out.

"Probably not that much."

"You have a fully evolved Pokémon."

"Who's a friendship-based evolution and whose strongest moves are Bug Bite and Razor Leaf."

"Growlithe's best move is Ember," Vale countered. "And Snivy's…"

"Have you even scanned Snivy yet?"

Vale had realized at exactly that moment that she hadn't. She hurriedly pulled out her Pokédex and lifted it up to scan Snivy. He swiped at it with a Vine Whip, and Vale barely pulled her hand back in time.

"Hey, it's not going to hurt you," she said.

She raised it again, more slowly, and this time Snivy let her scan him.

"Tackle, Leer, and Vine Whip. Pretty much what I thought."

"Well, we need to fix that," Nora said.

"How exactly do I do that?" Vale asked, looking around at the available wild Pokémon. "I don't particularly want to tangle with a full-grown Tauros or Donphan with my current team."

"Hey, we've got Legends watching out for us. What's the worst that could happen?"

"Our Pokémon could get killed," Vale reminded her sternly.

"Do you trust them?"

"I suppose."

"Do you trust yourself?"

"I guess."

"Pokémon die in fights in the wild all the time. Fighting under your command is a lot safer for them."

"But if I send them into a reckless fight and they get killed…"

"Fine," Nora said. "If you want to miss out on all this free experience. Come on Leavanny." Nora and Leavanny took off towards the Donphan.

"At least you have a Pokémon who doubly resists Ground," Vale called after her.

"Quil."

Vale realized Quilava was hanging back. "You're right," she told the Fire-type. "She's going to get one of you killed one day."

"Quiiiil-ava." Quilava shook her head.

"Oh, that's not what you said." Vale turned away. _Man, I wish I could understand Pokémon better._

Then she saw Snivy racing across the grasslands toward a mother Donphan. Vale watched as he coiled his Vine Whips around one of her horns and leapt onto her back. She shook her head violently. He retracted his Vine Whips and jumped to the ground before he could be thrown off.

"He's going to get himself killed," Vale cried. "Come on."

She ran onto the grass, Growlithe and Quilava following.

"Hey," Vale called to the Donphan, distracting her. Quilava and Growlithe shot Embers at her. She turned her head and blocked both.

And then Vale realized she was in a bad spot. This was a fully evolved Pokémon. And a mother Pokémon. Vale could see a Phanpy trying to hide behind the Donphan's legs.

Quilava and Growlithe jumped in front of Vale. Snivy jumped in front of them, snapping a Vine Whip across the Donphan's face.

"Don-phaaaaaan!" the Ground-type trumpeted. Vale guessed she'd said something along the lines of "Leave, or I charge."

"Razor Leaf, Leavanny," Nora's voice called. A hail of leaves slammed into the Donphan, and that seemed to be enough to make her reconsider. She backed away.

"Now do you see that our Pokémon are stronger than you give them credit for?" Nora asked.

"I guess," Vale said. "Good job, Snivy." Vale looked down just in time to see Snivy start to glow. "Er…Servine, rather," she added when the glow subsided.

Vale whipped out her Pokédex and scanned Servine on a hunch. "And, you've learned Leaf Tornado."

"You see what battling fully evolved Pokémon can do for your team?" Nora asked.

"I still think it's risky."

"No risk, no reward," Nora countered.

"Fine, but if a single one of my Pokémon gets hurt, we're done."

* * *

The news spread like wildfire through the Donphan herd. Friendly battles—as well as not-so-friendly battles to establish dominance—were common among Pokémon that lived in large groups, particularly the males, and several soon showed up to test themselves against Vale's and Nora's teams, along with a few Tauros. Vale's Pokémon picked up new moves at rates she hadn't thought were possible. Of course, they were at quite a disadvantage in strength, and not all the wild Pokémon were content to hold back.

Growlithe in particular had trouble. He was the least experienced member of Vale's team, and, with only Ember and Tackle as offensive moves, could barely touch the Donphan. Still, he picked up two additional moves: Flame Wheel, and, interestingly enough, Reversal, which was a move that only a handful of Growlithe ever learned. Ivysaur picked up the always-useful Double Team. Luxio barely did anything during the series of battles, considering half the opponents were Ground-types. Servine, on the other hand, saw a lot of action, but didn't get any more moves after Leaf Tornado.

And that all happened in less than an hour.

* * *

Vale's stomach grumbled. It was 1:00, according to her PokéGear, and she hadn't eaten. She and Nora had also skipped breakfast, both to get on the road more quickly and to save money.

Vale plopped down at the edge of the path and ate an apple and a breakfast bar. She pulled out the last Sitrus Berry and tossed it to Growlithe, who was the lowest on energy of all her Pokémon. She always preferred using natural methods of healing, which were theoretically free, as opposed to Potions, which could get expensive.

Nora joined her after a couple minutes, trailing an exhausted looking Leavanny and Floette.

"That was awesome," Nora pronounced.

"Speak for yourself," Vale said. "I spent the whole time worrying about them."

"Growlithe looks like he had fun."

"Just because I gave him a Sitrus Berry. He didn't two minutes ago."

"I still say you're being overly cautious," Nora said.

"Say what you will."

"Wait, what's going on?" Nora stood up.

Vale looked across the grassland. The herd of Donphan was moving off, but then one disconnected itself and headed back toward the girls. As it got closer, Vale recognized the mother Donphan that Servine had attacked earlier. Her child trailed behind her.

She stopped in front of Vale. "Don-phan. Phan," she said, pushing the Phanpy toward her.

 _Mew?_ Vale asked.

" ** _She said, 'Please train my son. Make him strong, a Donphan who can lead the herd one day,'_** " Mew translated.

"Wow," Vale said. "I…your trust means a lot."

The female Donphan took a step back in surprise. She'd never expected this human girl to be able to understand her.

Vale dropped into a crouch in front of the Phanpy, trying to seem less scary. But once she got up close and could better read his facial expression, she realized that he didn't look scared. Or sad. Or anything. He actually reminded her of Ivysaur, in that regard.

He looked to his mother, who made a slight gesture with her trunk.

Vale pulled out a Pokéball and touched it to Phanpy's forehead. He disappeared inside.

"I'll take care of him," Vale assured his mother. "I promise."

A Donphan trumpeted from just out of sight. The mother turned and moved off in that direction.

"How do you keep doing that?" Nora asked.

" ** _It's because she's Chosen, of course,_** " Mew and Celebi said simultaneously.

 _Of course,_ Vale thought. _So does that mean I just get everything handed to me? Because it sure hasn't felt that way._

" ** _Not everything, but again, Pokémon will notice that you're special,_** " Mew said.

* * *

They stopped for the night at 9:00. Vale and Nora let all their Pokémon out for dinner. Phanpy wandered off a short distance to a clump of scrub where he found something good to eat, although Vale couldn't tell what. Luxio did the same. She found a few berries in a different bush and had quite the feast. Servine disappeared too, although Vale didn't see where he'd gone.

She fed Growlithe and Ivysaur some of the special Pokémon food she'd packed. Nora fed it to all her Pokémon. Quilava and Growlithe got in a fight over food, which ended after Leavanny used String Shot on them both. They easily burned the string away with a pair of Flame Wheels, but Leavanny had gotten her point across, and the two Fire-types didn't bother each other again.

The three Pokémon who had wandered off all came back as Vale was pitching her tent. Phanpy and Servine returned to their Pokéballs, as did Ivysaur and all of Nora's Pokémon except Quilava, who curled up at the entrance to Nora's tent. Having a Fire-type close at hand always helped to deter any overly-curious wild Pokémon who might wander too close to the tent during the night.

Although it was summer, the grasslands could still get chilly at night, so Vale curled up in her sleeping bag, with Growlithe on one side and Luxio on the other.

* * *

 _There is blood on the wall by the front door of the house. More on the carpet, a trail of it leading toward the kitchen. She doesn't want to go any farther in. She does not want to follow the trail. She knows what she will find at the other end. But her feet are moving of their own accord, carrying her forward. She walks down the front hallway, through the living room, and into the kitchen, moving like someone in a daze._

 _Her father is lying on the tile floor, blood pouring out of his throat. He stares at her; his eyes are glazed over, but she knows he sees her, that he blames her. He reaches a bloody hand towards her, his lips seeming to form the word "why…"_

* * *

She woke up to Growlithe licking her cheek.

"Grooooowlithe," he said.

She patted him on the head. "Thanks."

Luxio was awake on Vale's other side.

"Lux," she greeted.

"Good morning to you too," Vale said.

Nora poked her head into the tent. "Rise and shine, sleepyhead. The sun's already up, and we need to get moving."

"Okay. Be right there." She felt her voice tremble slightly. That nightmare…

Growing up she'd always felt like Darkrai was unusually fond of her. She'd been convinced that only he could conjure up the bizarre and horrifying nightmares she'd periodically had. No simple things like going to school naked or forgetting to study for a major test for her. No doubt he'd jumped at the chance to see how he could use this latest trauma to torment her.

Vale had slept in her clothes, so packing was easy. She clambered out of her sleeping bag and rolled it up, then returned Growlithe and Luxio to their balls.

Once outside, she found Nora hurriedly disassembling her tent, as though she'd wanted to hide that she wasn't quite ready. Vale caught her eye and raised her eyebrows. Nora's cheeks reddened slightly, but then she shook it off and went back to packing.

Vale packed up her own tent and strapped it and the sleeping bag to the top of her backpack. She slipped the two Pokéballs into her satchel.

She swung her backpack over her shoulder and stood up, to find herself face-to-face with Nora, now actually ready.

"Let's go," Nora said.

They walked along. Nora had Quilava out, and Vale had Luxio. After about thirty minutes of walking, Luxio stopped, intently sniffing the air.

"What is it?" Vale asked.

"Lux." Luxio ducked behind a rock beside the path. Vale, trusting the Electric-type's instincts, joined her, pulling Nora behind it as well.

"What's going on?" Nora asked, hurriedly recalling Quilava.

"Shhh. I don't know."

Seconds later, a Riolu ran past.

"Holy crap, that's a rare Pokémon," Nora said.

"Be quiet," Vale whispered frantically. Her own instincts were now screaming "Danger!"

Two men in the blue uniforms of the Abyssal Cult ran by next, clearly chasing the Riolu and followed by a third.

"Oh great," Nora said.

"You wanted to fight cultists," Vale said. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

"Can you track them, Luxio?" The Electric-type nodded.

Following Luxio's sense of smell, Vale and Nora chased after the three cultists. It wasn't long before they entered a grove of trees, just in time to see the third one disappear into a small cave in the middle.

"It looks man-made," Nora said.

Vale was about to enter when she saw a symbol carved to the right of the doorway: a circle with four lines coming outward.

"Look at this," she said.

"That looks really old," Nora said, coming over.

"And you don't need to be an archeologist to know what it represents."

"The Ring of Creation. But why is it here? It's too lackluster to be a shrine to anything."

"The Ring of Creation wasn't added to the lore until several hundred years after the founding of the Church," Vale said.

"At which point there would have been no reason to build a cave like this as a religious site," Nora finished.

Nora pulled a flashlight out of her backpack, and then she and Vale entered the cave.

They found themselves in a long hallway with a fairly low ceiling that sloped slightly downward. The left wall was covered in carvings.

"Why do you reckon it's just the left wall?" Nora asked.

Vale stepped up to the wall. The first carving was of Reshiram, with what looked like a girl on her back. The next showed a man standing on a ledge watching the building of a temple. The next, another man addressing a crowd.

Something occurred to Vale suddenly. She started running down the hallway, past more images: a man climbing a mountain with a Rhyperior by his side, another man kneeling before Arceus, a woman flying a small plane…

"Yes, I was right!" Vale cried.

"About what?" Nora hissed, catching up.

"They're events from history. That first one's the Revelation, then the building of temples to the Legends, the founding of the League, the discovery that the Hall of Origin isn't on top of Mt. Coronet when that guy finally climbed to the top, the agreement about battling Legends, then the discovery that the Hall isn't _above_ Mt. Coronet either."

"Why isn't the invention of Pokéballs on there?" Nora asked. "That was probably the most pivotal event of the last few centuries."

Vale looked at the last few pictures.

Two Trainers faced off, one with a Rhydon, one with a Lapras.

Rayquaza—no, Mega Rayquaza—flew through the sky, on a collision course with a massive meteor.

Dialga and Palkia stood on the summit of Mt. Coronet, strange patterns in the sky above them, and several people surrounding them.

Five kids, each with a Pokémon beside them, stood against a man with a Mega Gyarados.

And the last…

"Oh my Arceus," Vale gasped.

"It's not just events from history," Nora said. "It's a record of all the Chosen. These are prophecies. I'll bet the other wall is blank so additional ones can be recorded there as they come."

"I don't believe it."

"Look. That's Red's battle with Giovanni, Rayquaza and Brandon destroying the meteor, the Galactic Incident, the Fab Five facing off against Lysandre, and then…"

"Me." Vale finished.

The last image showed a girl with Mew perched on her shoulder standing in a field, with the Jade Tower, complete with roof ornament, in the background.

"This is impossible," Vale said. "I don't believe in destiny."

"Clearly, it's not," Nora said.

"Stop running, Riolu. You're ours now!" yelled a voice from the next room. It echoed a bit, signaling a fairly large room.

Vale and Nora promptly remembered why they were there.

They slipped through the door at the end of the hallway and found themselves in a good-sized cave that was largely featureless aside from a statue of Arceus on a dais positioned against the far wall. The three cultists had cornered the Riolu against the dais. It was standing oddly, as though it had injured its leg.

None of the three men were facing the door, and Vale was about to take advantage of that and start sneaking forward when Nora ruined that plan.

"Don't touch that Pokémon!" she cried.

The three cultists turned.

"Well, well, well," one said. "Couple of kids who think they're heroes."

"Let it go," Vale said, lingering on each word.

"How about we don't, and you leave?" said another.

"Not happening," Vale said.

"Deal with them," said the third, who was clearly the leader.

"Leavanny, go!" Nora called, throwing a Pokéball.

Vale sent out Luxio. "You want a battle?" she said. "That's fine by me."

The cultists sent out a pair of Carvanha. As usual with some Water-types, they floated in the air.

"Nora," Vale said.

"Yeah?"

"Don't hold back."

"No problem. Razor Leaf, Leavanny!" A hail of pointed leaves slammed into the Carvanha on the left, which fainted.

The other Carvanha lunged at Luxio, teeth coated in ice.

"Spark," Vale ordered. Luxio leapt to meet the incoming Water-type, fur crackling with electricity. That Carvanha also fainted.

"Still want to battle us?" Nora asked.

"You girls don't know what you're getting into," said one cultist.

"Time to break out the big guns," said the other.

"Crawdaunt."

"Whiscash."

 _Well, this matchup sucks,_ Vale thought as she returned Luxio. "Servine, let's go."

"Razor Leaf," Nora ordered. Another barrage of leaves flew, and this time hit the Whiscash, who took the hit fairly well. Vale hurriedly pulled out her Pokédex and checked its energy. It was a little below half.

"Night Slash, Crawdaunt. On the Leavanny."

Leavanny dodged easily.

"Leaf Tornado on the Crawdaunt," Vale called. A different sort of hail of leaves slammed into the Crawdaunt, dropping its energy by about one third.

"Earthquake!" screamed the cultist with the Whiscash. The cave shook. Vale was nearly knocked off her feet. Nora didn't fair much better.

Neither Leavanny nor Servine budged.

"Grass resists Ground, you moron!" yelled the other cultist.

"Uh…oh, yeah."

"Razor Leaf, again," Nora ordered. A second barrage of Razor Leaf knocked out the Whiscash.

"Night Slash. On the Servine this time."

Servine fainted. Vale was dazed for a second, but recovered quickly and sent out Luxio again. The Crawdaunt glowed blue as its attack power dropped.

"Spark," Vale ordered. Crawdaunt mostly shook off the damage.

 _This thing is too strong for me,_ Vale thought.

"Aqua Jet, Crawdaunt."

Crawdaunt formed a bubble of water around itself and launched itself forward

"Oh, no, you don't. String Shot, Leavanny."

Crawdaunt shot right into a blob of sticky silk, where another Spark finished it off.

"We win," Nora pronounced.

"Actually, you don't." The two cultists pulled their guns.

"Didn't think about that," Nora said.

"Run when I say," Vale hissed at Nora.

"What about Riolu?" Nora hissed back.

Before Vale could respond, one of the two cultists seemed to have a revelation.

"I think I recognize this brat," he said, gesturing to Vale.

"Oh, yeah," said the other.

 _Oh, crap,_ Vale thought.

"She's the one who got in our way in Telnor Town. The little bitch who got Vince arrested."

"Wait, what?" Nora asked.

The third cultist turned around. He was holding a gun in one hand and had the injured Riolu by its foot with the other.

"So you're the one who saved the Augur's life," he said.

"Did what?" Nora asked.

"Grab them," he ordered.

The other two cultists were suddenly behind Vale and Nora. One grabbed Vale and pinned her arms to her sides. The other shoved Nora to the ground and put his gun to her head. Leavanny and Luxio, who were still out of their Pokéballs, were decidedly uncertain what to do with so many guns around.

"The penalty for crossing the Abyssal Cult is death," the leader said and leveled his gun at Vale's forehead.

A Lucario appeared out of nowhere, sneaking up behind the leader. Vale couldn't exactly miss it facing the direction she was.

 _I bet that's the mother. These guys are about to seriously regret coming here._

"Any last words?"

"Look behind you," Vale said.

The leader spun. "Well, would you look at that," he said. "The mother Lucario comes to save her child."

He dropped the Riolu onto the stone floor and put his gun away, then pulled out a Pokéball.

"Now, to catch it," he said.

Then the Lucario did something neither Nora or Vale ever could have imagined. A dark pink light surrounded her. It disappeared after a few seconds, revealing a transformed Pokémon. The aura sensors on the back of her head were longer and turned dark pink at the ends. Her tail was bushy, more like an Arcanine's. Her spikes were longer.

Vale gasped. She instantly recognized Mega Evolution, and she knew full well that Mega Lucario was one of the most dangerous things in online competitive battling, and in real battling as well, judging from the videos she'd seen. The problem was that what she'd just witnessed was impossible.

The leader got ready to send out his Pokémon…

…and the Lucario slashed his chest.

He staggered backward, blood coming from his mouth. The other two cultists released the girls and started backing away, their mouths open in shock.

After briefly checking on her child, the Lucario advanced, blood dripping from her claws.

" ** _Recall your Pokémon,_** " hissed Mew's voice in Vale's head. She quickly did, and thankfully Nora caught on and recalled Leavanny.

A flash of light, and then the two of them were standing outside the cave, a tired-looking Mew and Celebi floating in front of them.

A horrible scream sounded within the cave. Vale doubled over and vomited up what little food was in her stomach.

" **That is why you never anger a mother Pokémon** ," Mew said.

"I am never going to be able to forget that," Vale said, wiping vomit off her chin with the back of her hand and then wiping her hand on her shorts.

"But how was that even possible? I thought only caught, trained Pokémon could Mega Evolve," said Nora.

Mew and Celebi exchanged a glance.

"Still no answers?" Nora asked. "Fine."

Vale raised an eyebrow.

"What? I'm not going to press them for secrets if they don't want to share."

" **Thank you, Nora,** " Celebi said.

" **Are you okay?** " Mew asked Vale.

"I will be. It's just…all that blood. I couldn't help but think of…"

" **Say no more. I understand.** "

"Thanks," Vale said and pulled him into a hug.

" **Let go, please,** " Mew said, scrambling out of it.

Celebi and Nora giggled. Mew glared at them.

Celebi disappeared, jumping into her Pokéball. Mew rolled his eyes and vanished.

"Now," Nora said. "You have some explaining to do. When did you save Jaern's life? And how?"

"The Abyssal Cult tried to assassinate him when he was visiting Telnor Town," Vale explained.

"You should have let them."

"What?"

"Would have saved people like us a lot of trouble."

"I don't want him dead. That'll just cause more turmoil. I want him to step down, or if nothing else, publically acknowledge what he's done to the region."

"Well, anyway, now for the how," Nora said.

"They pulled guns, and I did the first thing that jumped to mind and let out my Pokémon. All I really did was battle them and give security time to show up."

"Apparently, that put you on their hit list."

"Apparently," Vale muttered.

"Are you scared?" Nora asked.

"No." She had just realized that herself. "And even if I was it wouldn't make a difference. As I said to Damien once, I won't let fear keep me from living."

* * *

Vale's mind raced as they walked on.

 _What kind of irony is this? I have always been a believer in free will, and now I find that my life has been completely determined beforehand. It's not fair. Why me?_

" ** _Vale,_** " Mew chimed in. " ** _We all have things we're expected to do. That's just a fact of life._** "

 _There are so many people that would be better for the job than me. People who actually_ believe _in fate._

" ** _I have always trusted his judgment. You'll just have to do the same._** "

 _After seeing that picture, I just feel…trapped._

Mew did not respond.

* * *

 **AN: On the way to Suntouched City, Vale gets a singularly unwelcome revelation regarding her destiny.**

 **I hope this chapter felt a bit tragic. First off, we have the idea that the Edict was passed to punish humanity popping up again. The day people realized that the Legends were gone is considered one of the darkest days in history in this world. See, the areas where Legends tended to show up in the human world (Ecruteak City, the Cave of Origin, Sky Pillar, Mt. Coronet, Dragonspiral Tower) all had healthy build-ups of energy surrounding them. To people who were particularly religious or particularly attuned to that energy, it represented security and the certainty that a higher power was watching out for them. When the Legends left after the passage of the Edict, so did the energy, and that left a lot of people devastated.**

 **Then there's something a little bit more personal: Vale, who doesn't believe in destiny, is now faced with irrefutable proof that her path has already been laid out.**

 **We get to see a bit more of Nora in this chapter. She is a lot like Vale, but goes to a greater extreme. She hates Jaern more and is more devoutly religious. Vale tries to be devout (which is why she initially had a problem with Delta Pokemon), but she's also got a lot of reasons to be angry at Arceus. Nora is more reckless, but she's also been a Trainer longer, so she better knows what her team can handle. Vale can be reckless as well, but she tries to think everything through. Vale is also more politically minded, so she's considered things like the potential backlash if Jaern were killed. Also, regarding Nora's team. The reason they're not all fully evolved is because she's lacked motivation to really train for large chunks of the last few years.**

 **That cave and the battle with the Abyssal Cultists is in the game, but I added a lot to it, like making the cave have prophecies carved on the walls. We'll be coming back here again before the story's over. That supposedly impossible Mega Lucario is also in the game and will also be relevant later. That battle was the first one so far that I've done using a damage calculator. All later battles will work this way. For reference, I set Servine to level 20, Luxio to 18, Leavanny to 28, both Carvanha to 23, and the Whiscash and Crawdaunt to 30.**

 **Also, history. I don't have everything worked out yet regarding the history and lore of my AU, so the pictures on the cave wall may change.**

 **Lastly, Vale's nightmare. I love using dreams as plot devices. This is not the last nightmare she'll have about her parents' deaths or the last time Darkrai will make this sort of appearance.**


	11. Chapter 10: The Jewel of the Plains

Suntouched City sparkles in the sunlight. Not for nothing is it sometimes called the Jewel of the Plains. The shine comes from the hundreds of solar panels on all the tallest buildings. Almost the entire city is solar-powered, and it is a combination of the panels themselves and the shine they create that gives the city its name.

But all is not glittery in this Jewel. This gemstone is counterfeit. Just as sparkly as a real one, but the glitter is a façade. For below the office buildings and high-rise apartments, Suntouched City has a poverty problem as massive as that of any of Torren's major cities, made worse by the fact that the mayor is more concerned with maintaining his city's reputation than with living up to it. And so the poor and homeless are ignored.

Once Suntouched City was a jewel in more than just name and initial appearance. There once stood a shining temple to Reshiram on a hill overlooking the city. Why a city known for its sunny days would choose her as its patron deity over Ho-oh or Groudon is anyone's guess, but the temple's high priest was once quoted as saying that the light of the sun would burn away falsehood. That priest would probably be turning over in his grave were he aware of how the sun now aids the city's great lie.

At its height, the temple was a popular pilgrimage destination for followers of the goddess of truth. They came to leave their offerings and prayers, and to gaze upon the reason for the temple's popularity. The statue that stood within the main chamber of the temple was possibly one of the most lifelike depictions of a Legend ever carved in stone. The men—and occasionally women—who made the statues for each temple possessed rare skill in sculpture, with some going to so far as to say that the sculptors had been blessed by Arceus himself. Regardless, this particular statue pushed the limits of what could be done in the medium of stone. Reshiram's twin crests streamed behind her as though caught in a gust of wind, and her wings stretched out to the sides as though she was just about to take flight.

But it was not to last. Such magnificent stonework was fragile, and it came to pass that the statue's wings and crests were broken off during an earthquake that struck the city. With no way to re-attach them and the temple's claim to fame thus ruined, it was abandoned. With the pilgrims went the city's main source of income. And so it stands today as a monument to irony.

* * *

Vale was still wondering how this latest brush with death had fazed her so little. She'd been terrified most of the time she was in the Darkrai Cult's base; had everything that had happened since really changed her so much?

 _How little I'm scared scares me, if that makes any sense,_ she thought.

She was so utterly lost in thought that she didn't notice that Suntouched City was in front of them until Nora elbowed her in the ribs and said, "Hey, we're almost there."

"Almost" soon proved to be a relative term. Suntouched City was visible a long way off thanks to the sun reflecting off the solar panels, as well as the fairly straight, flat path that led to it. Nora and Vale walked for another hour or so, with the city never seeming to get any closer. And then suddenly they were in it.

At street level, the panels mostly weren't visible. Down there, the brightness came from the sun reflecting off windows. It was also noticeably hotter than out on the plains. Heat radiated off the pavement, and to a lesser extent the buildings.

Looking around, Vale realized she and Nora were standing on the roof of a tunnel. There was a small platform up there, with walkways branching off to lead foot traffic onto the sidewalks and out of the way of the cars that periodically entered the tunnel. There was a railing at the front of the platform, where people could watch as the road sloped dramatically downward, carrying motorized traffic underground for a short period before popping back up and merging onto Regional Highway 1, bound for either Helios City in the north or Lumiose City, in Kalos, to the south.

It was early afternoon by this point, about 2:00, and so all traffic was at a minimum. Those who worked were working, and those who didn't were inside trying to avoid the hottest part of the day and the scorching summer heat that came with it.

"Your purpose in Suntouched City?"

Vale jumped. There was also a guardhouse on this platform, a two-tiered one, with one guard posted here to regulate foot traffic, the other in the tunnel below to deal with the motorized variety.

"Just passing through on a Pokémon journey," Vale said.

"I'll need to see some ID."

Both girls pulled out their PokéGears and brought up their Trainer Cards. The guard scanned both.

"Didn't expect to see any journeyers coming through this summer, what with the increased cult activity."

"How do you mean, increased?" Nora asked.

"Surely you heard. The Arceus-damned Abyssals tried to assassinate the Augur!" He reached into the booth and pulled out a copy of the _Helios Sun_ from three days ago.

Vale took the newspaper from him. The headline declared, "TWO ARRESTED FOR ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT" in bold letters, with smaller text below that that said, "Bloodshed narrowly avoided in Telnor Town."

"Can I take this?" Vale asked.

"Sure."

"Is there anywhere we can train while we're in the city?" Nora asked.

"There are always people looking to battle in the park. If you want to meet up with them, the Pokémon Center on Sol Street is always a good place to start."

"Thanks."

The two girls turned and started to walk away. Then the guard realized that he recognized the brunette.

He pulled out a cellphone, dialed a number with methodical precision, then spoke into it.

"She's here."

"Good," came the reply.

* * *

Vale and Nora ducked into a small diner and sat down at the corner table, where Vale spread out the newspaper.

"'Tragedy nearly struck in Telnor Town yesterday," she read. "While giving a speech in the town hall, our beloved Augur was attacked by two cultists who snuck into the building with intent to kill.'"

"Listen to how they talk about him," Nora said in disgust.

Vale kept reading. "'The attempt was thwarted by a pair of quick-thinking young Trainers, whose names have not been released for their own safety.'"

"Who was the other?" Nora asked.

"Damien."

"Really? Him?"

"He was following my lead."

"Because that makes you sound humble."

"It's the truth. Anyway," Vale skipped a few lines. "'In the wake of this attack, the Augur has renewed his efforts—and the efforts of his task force—to capture Abyssal Cult leader Audrey Haskill, believed to be the mastermind behind the attempt on his life. The police are asking anyone with information to come forward, as Haskill is a shadowy figure about whom little is known."

"So that's yesterday's news today," Nora joked.

"Yeah." _Still wondering why he's fixating on the Abyssals for this,_ Vale thought.

* * *

They left the diner without ordering anything, leaving behind a somewhat flummoxed waitress, who was wondering why two girls had come into her workplace just to read the news.

They wandered around town for a while, looking for Sol Street and getting progressively more lost. Finally, Nora flagged down a passing taxi and asked for directions. As was typical with taxi drivers, this one knew the city like the back of his hand, and he was able to point them toward the Pokémon Center they were looking for without any problem.

That isn't to say that finding it wasn't a problem, though. The streets of Suntouched City were completely unfamiliar to the two of them and were not laid out in an easy-to-follow grid pattern. Finally, Nora came up with the brilliant—and rather obvious—idea to take the subway.

Vale hesitated for no longer than a few seconds, remembering Jaern's conditions for the challenge, before deciding that there was no way he expected them to travel around a big city like Suntouched on foot. The subway got them right where they needed to be in less than thirty minutes, at the cost of 10 Poké each to buy a metro card that they would probably never use again.

Once there, however, they found the Pokémon Center mostly empty, aside from the nurse, her Chansey, and a man watching the news on the TV in the waiting room. They rented rooms, again free for the first 24 hours, and asked the nurse for directions to the park.

She was not quite as knowledgeable about the city as the cab driver, but she solved that problem, as well as Vale and Nora's previous one of getting lost, by showing them how to access the GPS function on their PokéGears.

"Surprised you didn't know about this, Vale," Nora said as they left.

"I don't know everything! I never used one of these until three days ago. Did you know it was there?"

"I forgot. I never use it," she added in response to Vale's smirk.

* * *

The man entered Suntouched City. The guard gave him no trouble, at least not after being bribed with no less than 150 Poké. Going around to the south entrance would have gotten him in for free, as that guard was on his payroll, so to speak, but the man was far shorter on time than on money.

He pushed his light brown hair out of his face. No one would recognize him, he knew. These fools, all they saw was the uniform. Take that off, and you were just another guy on the street.

Right now, he had a job to do. He'd lost track of the girl after she'd left Midna Town, but he'd easily been able to track her down again by guessing where she'd be headed next. There was only one route to Helios City from Telnor Town for one traveling on foot, after all. Now he had to find her and make sure he didn't lose her again. If he could track down the source of that strange energy signature emitting from the city, well, that was just a bonus.

* * *

The park would not have been hard to find even without a GPS. Even someone who didn't know where they were going and just wandered around the city aimlessly would probably blunder into it sooner or later. That was because it was situated almost in the exact center of the city, and it was huge. It seemed almost as though the city had been built in a giant ring around this area of land. In fact, the park had not been in the original plans for the city and been added during the early stages of construction when the equipment of the day proved incapable of moving a particularly stubborn rock formation and the planner decided to simply add a park centered on the rocks to his layout. This was the reason for the city's strange arrangement of streets.

Visitors entering the park from the south entrance were treated to a decidedly unwelcome sight. Or at least, Vale considered it an unwelcome one.

At the end of a short cobblestone path, just inside the park, stood a ten-foot statue of Jaern on a five-foot pedestal.

"If I wasn't tired enough of people making him out to be larger than life, they had to go and do it literally," Vale said.

Nora chuckled. "Does that inscription say what I think it says?" she asked.

Vale read it off the pedestal. "'May his hits be critical and his Focus Blasts never miss.'" She could barely finish it with a straight face.

"What is that? Some kind of competitive battler's blessing?" Nora asked, also giggling uncontrollably.

As a veteran of online competitive battling herself, Vale could conclusively say that she'd never heard of any such thing.

"Maybe if someone was trying to get attention," she said.

"Trying to get attention," Nora repeated. "That sounds about right for him."

"Well, he doesn't have to try very hard."

Another round of giggling ensued.

"Come on," Vale finally said. "We're here to train, right?"

"Yeah. Right." Nora sounded a bit breathless.

* * *

The park was full of people with Pokémon, but none of them were battling. There were several battlefields clearly visible from the entrance, some surfaced with grass, others with sand, and all currently unused. Instead, people walked Furfrou down the paths and children played with Pachirisu and Teddiursa. A man with binoculars watched a family of Pidgey. Another man was throwing a Frisbee for two bearded collies and a Stoutland.

"You sure he said the park?" Nora asked.

"Yeah," Vale said.

"Well, why is no one battling?"

"We did wander around the city for a few hours. Maybe it's too late in the day now."

"I guess. Kind of disappointing."

"Yeah."

"We could always battle each other."

"I'd lose!"

"Pokémon learn when they lose too, you know."

"I know that," Vale said.

"Hey, Vale," called a voice.

Vale spun around. "Damien?" she asked.

"Hi."

"How did you get here before us?" Nora asked.

"Borrowed someone's Pidgeot. Don't tell—"

Vale shook her head to cut him off. Nora scowled.

"You did check in at the guardhouse, right?" Vale asked.

"Of course I did. I'm not stupid."

"Actually—" Nora started.

"Don't be mean," Vale cut her off.

"Anyway, I expect you're wondering what kind of progress I've made," Damien said.

"Not really," Nora muttered. Vale glared at her.

Damien pulled out a Pokéball. "Check this out," he said.

A Metang materialized, floating above the grass.

"Nice job," Vale said.

"It took _hours_ ," Damien said. "Hours of battling at the Trainer's School, and just calling Take Down over and over again."

"Well, looks like it was worth it," Vale said.

"I'm really starting to enjoy this, actually, even if it can be boring at times. I came to the park because I was told I could find people to battle with here, but there isn't anyone."

"Join the club," Nora said.

"I could battle you," Vale offered. "Nora's team is too much stronger than mine, but I bet you're in about the same place."

"I'm in."

* * *

He peered through the bushes. Him, the son of one of the most feared men in the region, reduced to hiding in shrubbery like a naughty child. Oh well. His orders were to find the girl and to remain hidden. He'd accomplished the first and so far managed the second. She had no clue she was being watched.

Now he just had to send the signal that would communicate her location and then they would once again be able to track her wherever she went.

His energy detector beeped. He whipped the device out of his pocket, hiding it with one hand so passersby wouldn't see the strange device. The signal he'd been looking for in the city had been located. Except it wasn't _in_ the city. The detector was indicating a location outside of town.

One that could only be the old temple.

* * *

 **AN: The girls arrive in Suntouched City, but so does someone else, someone who has an interest in Vale...**

 **Sorry about that. Writer's Block, bad internet connectivity, and my cousin's wedding in St. Louis all conspired to keep me from getting this chapter up in a timely manner.**

 **The first thing I need to explain is the map. I designed this world before I realized the extent to which the Pokemon World parallels the real world. As such, I put all seven regions on the same continent, with Torren in the middle and almost completely landlocked, Sinnoh in the north, and Hoenn in the south. Kalos is southwest of Torren and northwest of Hoenn.**

 **I originally intended to poke fun at the lack of canonical last names in the anime by having a similar lack in this story, but that didn't work for very long. So Audrey's last name is now Haskill. And yes, it is significant that Jaern called her by her first name back in chapter 5.**

 **That statue is in the game, put there (I imagine) as a joke for competitive battlers to pick up on. Focus Blast's accuracy is something of a joke in the community.**

 **Also, any guesses as to who Vale's stalker is?**


	12. Chapter 11: The White Stone

"Ready, Damien?" Vale asked.

They had commandeered one of the park's many battlefields, although that was probably not quite the right word, since no one was using the field in question before them.

Nora was refereeing. "Alright," she said. "This is a standard three-on-three. Both Trainers will send out their first Pokémon on my mark, and either may switch Pokémon whenever they please. Once either Trainer has sent out a total of three different Pokémon, he or she is limited to those three. The battle will continue until one Trainer has no Pokémon that can battle."

Vale shot Nora a look. This was _not_ a standard three-on-three. Standard 3v3, or Battle Spot, as it was designated in online competitive, was a format in which both Trainers brought a full team of six, but could only battle with three. Each got to see his or her opponent's full team beforehand and chose the three Pokémon he or she felt could do the most against the opposing team, while not knowing which three his or her opponent would be choosing. It was the format that most major tournaments aside from the League used.

Yet here Nora was, making up a new rule that would force Vale to choose which Pokémon to use on the fly. And only her, she realized. Damien, as far as she knew, only had three. Maybe the other girl was trying to level the playing field.

Fortunately, Vale knew Damien's team already. And she had a good idea of which one of her Pokémon she wanted to use against each of his. Growlithe—and maybe Luxio as well—was the only one who could really touch the Metang. Then Servine for his Luxio, since Phanpy still wasn't trained much, and Ivysaur for the Charmeleon.

Vale reached for Growlithe's Pokéball, predicting that Damien would lead off with his newly evolved Steel-type.

"Luxio!" Damien called.

 _Oh, crap,_ Vale thought. But she couldn't change her lead now.

"Growlithe, go." Her Fire-type materialized on the sand, across from Damien's Luxio.

 _Actually, not a bad lead on his part,_ Vale thought. _Luxio only has one weakness, and he doesn't know I have a Ground-type. And I can't switch Phanpy in. He's my weakest team member and won't get STAB until he evolves. He can't touch Metang or Charmeleon._

Luxio's Ability activated, and Growlithe glowed blue for a brief moment as his attack power dropped.

"Flame Wheel," Vale ordered.

"Spark, " Damien called a second later. Vale noticed he sounded far more confident than the last time she'd watched him battle.

Growlithe cloaked himself in flames and charged Luxio, who leapt to meet him, fur crackling with electricity.

The two collided, then quickly broke apart, Growlithe clearly having taken the worst of it. Vale whipped out her Pokédex to check Growlithe's energy levels and gasped when she saw that he was just barely above 50%. Luxio, thanks to Intimidate, was down a little over a quarter of his energy.

After seeing those results, Vale needed only a couple of seconds to realize that she needed to switch out. So she hurriedly recalled Growlithe and replaced him with Servine.

That could have been a risky move, but Vale knew that Servine could handle himself. She was proved correct when Damien tried to take advantage of the time it took her to make the switch by ordering a Tackle, and Servine responded by whacking Luxio in the face with a Vine Whip.

Vale scanned both Pokémon again, noticing that Damien was following her lead across the field. Luxio had lost an additional third of his energy, while Servine had taken no appreciable damage.

"Bite, Luxio," Damien ordered. "Watch the vines."

"Leaf Tornado," Vale ordered. The whirlwind of leaves smacked into Luxio well before he reached Servine, and he fainted.

"Go, Metang." The blue Steel-type materialized on the field.

Knowing Servine could do very little to damage a Metang, Vale hurriedly replaced him with Growlithe.

"Flame Wheel," she ordered. Growlithe cloaked himself in fire and launched toward Metang. The attack connected just slightly before Damien ordered a Confusion.

Vale checked Growlithe's energy. He had about 20% left. Metang was still above half.

 _Growlithe can't take another Confusion,_ she thought. _And another Flame Wheel won't take out Metang. The only way we win this match-up is to hope for a flinch._

"Bite, Growlithe," she ordered.

Growlithe sank his teeth into one of Metang's arms. Vale watched on her Pokédex as the blue Steel-type's energy dropped to below twenty percent.

 _Was that a critical hit?_

It didn't matter. "Fling him off," Damien ordered. "Then Confusion."

With a wave of its arm, Metang sent Growlithe flying into the center of the field. He landed on his feet, but then the Confusion connected and he collapsed.

Vale ran through her list of Pokémon in her head. _With Growlithe down, what else can I send in against this thing? Phanpy would be perfect if he had a Ground-type move, but he doesn't. Luxio might be able to handle it and might be able to deal with Charmeleon as well. Servine can't do anything. Ivysaur can handle Charmeleon, but not Metang, and if I send out Luxio against Metang, I can't use Ivysaur._

"Luxio, go."

As soon as the Electric-type materialized, Vale ordered a Spark, which connected before Metang was able to fire off another Confusion. The Steel-type fainted.

"Last Pokémon," Damien said. "Go, Charmeleon."

"Bite," Vale ordered.

"Night Shade."

The Night Shade connected first, but Luxio shrugged off the hit and sank her teeth into Charmeleon's arm.

On Vale's Pokédex, Charmeleon's energy dropped by about half, while Luxio lost one third.

 _I win._

"Dragon Rage," Damien ordered.

The Delta Pokémon fired a blast of blue flames that hit Luxio, who staggered and then collapsed.

"When did he learn Dragon Rage?" Vale asked.

"Around when he evolved, I think."

"You won, then. There's no way Servine could beat him."

Both Nora's and Damien's mouths fell open.

"I can't believe I just beat you," Damien said.

"Neither can I." Nora looked a bit sheepish.

Vale suddenly realized someone was clapping. A young woman stood a few feet back from the left edge of the battlefield. She had a Delcatty at her side and a Togekiss hovering slightly above her. She wore a flowered sundress and a wide-brimmed hat and carried a Pokéball bag bearing the logo of the Suntouched City Ninetales, the local Contest team.

Vale hurriedly hid her look of disgust when she saw the bag. She hated Contests. She'd always thought of them as less serious than regular battles, with the focus on superficial things like looks. It was no secret that Torren's Contest circuit had started because regional League executives wanted to get more girls into Pokémon Training.

The Contest circuit hadn't been hurt as badly as the Gym circuit when the League shut down in Torren. It had only ever been an affiliate of the League, not directly part of it. Even so, only Suntouched and Helios still maintained Contest teams, which now had to be privately funded.

"That was quite the battle," the woman said. "I'm impressed."

"Not interested," Vale said quickly.

"This isn't a recruitment pitch for the Ninetales, if that's what you mean. We're not currently seeking new members."

"Sorry," Vale said.

"Not a fan of contests, I guess?"

"No."

"It's alright. Not a lot of competitive battlers think very highly of us. I'm used to it."

"How did you know I do competitive?" Vale asked.

"You weren't telling your Pokémon to dodge. Classic sign of an online battler. You're not used to having that option."

"Well, I feel stupid," Vale muttered.

"Wow, she's good," Nora whispered.

"Anyway, I wanted to ask your help with something personal. I have a friend who wants desperately to be a Trainer but seems to have lost the motivation. I was hoping I could find him a couple of strong Trainers to battle and thereby rekindle his passion."

"We can do that, right?" Vale asked, looking at her friends.

"Yeah," Nora said.

"Heal my team first, and I'll give it a shot," Damien said.

"We're in. I'm Vale, by the way."

"Nora."

"Damien."

"Harmony. Pleased to meet you."

"So where are we going?" Vale asked.

"Lately, he's been hanging out up by the old temple a lot," Harmony said.

* * *

The man smirked. His job just got easier and easier. He could knock out two Pidgey with one stone this way. The next thing on his agenda was to get to the old temple as fast as he could.

He signaled his ride.

* * *

Once Vale and Damien had fully healed their Pokémon, they headed out of the city, to the hill where the temple ruins stood. Harmony flagged down a taxi and paid the fare, which was not insubstantial.

The temple complex retained little of its former glory. Most of the building was in ruins, the result of subsequent earthquakes, as well as good, old-fashioned time. The area around Suntouched City was surprisingly volatile and prone to quakes. Myths from the Multi-sectarian Era portrayed the Legends as being constantly at odds with one another, and some theories said that the area's volatility was Groudon's revenge for being passed over in favor of his white-scaled cousin. The marble of the fallen columns was far from the pristine white it had once been, again courtesy of time. The statue that had once given the temple its fame was no more, crushed when one quake collapsed the roof.

Nature had partially reclaimed the area. Ivy and other climbing plants grew on some of the columns. Where had once been stone floor was now grass once again. Part of the temple still stood, a raised marble platform with a couple pieces of columns extending upward. The rest was crushed and broken, scattered around the hilltop.

A boy of about ten sat on one of the fallen chunks of marble, one that may have once been part of a column but was now weathered beyond recognition. He had fiery red hair and wore tan shorts and bright yellow t-shirt. His belt held four Pokéballs. His eyes were firmly fixed on the item he held in his hand: a perfectly round, white stone. Vale could have sworn that she'd seen it somewhere before but couldn't think of exactly where.

He glanced up as they approached.

"Harmony," he acknowledged, and then his eyes went back to the stone.

"Orion, put that thing away," Harmony admonished. "I found a couple of Trainers willing to battle you."

"I don't want to battle right now," the boy said.

"But you need to." Harmony stepped forward and pried the stone out of his hand.

"Give it back," Orion cried, leaping up.

"Battle one of them first."

"Fine." Orion got up and looked over the three teens. "I want to battle you," he finally said, pointing at Vale.

The boy sent out a Vulpix. The sun immediately intensified.

 _Drought?_ _This could be problematic_ , Vale thought.

"You're supposed to wait until I say the rules," Harmony said.

"Let's just get this over with," Orion complained.

"Alright, fine. Anyway, this is a three-on-three battle. Battle ends when one Trainer has no Pokémon able to fight. And since Antsy here jumped the gun, I'll tell you, Vale, that Orion's team consists of a Vulpix, an Ivysaur, a Larvesta, and a Fletchinder."

"Where the heck did he get Pokémon like that?" Nora asked.

"Rich parents, mostly."

Vale sent out Luxio. "Well, this should be an interesting fight," she said. "Good luck."

"Whatever," Orion said. He was still glaring daggers at Harmony.

"Spark," Vale ordered. Luxio charged, her fur crackling with electricity.

"Ember."

"Dodge," Vale cried, finally remembering.

Luxio leapt to the side as the small fireball flew past her and connected with a chunk of marble, then continued her charge, slamming into the Vulpix's side. Vale checked its energy and saw that it was well below half.

"Payback," Orion ordered. Vulpix leapt at Luxio. Vale felt her stomach drop for a second, but the sometimes-extremely-dangerous move actually did very little damage.

Another Spark knocked out the Vulpix.

"Ivysaur," Orion called.

Vale half-considered switching in her own Ivysaur, but then decided Growlithe was the better option. She wanted to end the battle quickly. This boy was starting to get on her nerves.

She switched in her Fire-type.

"Flame Wheel," she ordered. Again the opposing Pokémon's energy dropped by over half. Orion looked slightly panicked, his hand going first to one of his two remaining Pokémon, then the other.

"Do you want to stop the battle?" Vale asked him.

"How are your Pokémon so strong?" he asked.

"They're not _that_ strong. I've only been a Trainer for a couple days, but I've gotten a lot of practice in that time. There's only one way to get better at battling, and that's to battle."

"But it's no fun to lose."

"But that's how you get better."

"Do you want to be a Trainer or not?" Harmony asked.

"Yes!"

"Then you need to find some kind of motivation to keep Training," Nora chimed in. "It helps a lot."

Orion glanced at the stone that Harmony still held. "Okay," he said.

* * *

They all decided to hang out on the hill for a while. Nora wanted to explore the ruins. Damien, feeling empowered after defeating Vale, decided to train with Orion. Vale was mostly interested in information. She was getting very curious about that stone.

She and Harmony sat down under an overhanging chunk of marble.

"So how did he find that thing in the first place?" she asked.

"See, I'm his family's live-in nanny. His dad's a successful businessman, and his mom's mostly just a socialite. They wanted to hire someone to keep their son company while they were busy. Someone friendly, energetic, et cetera. I was fairly new in town and had just realized that I'm not as good a coordinator as I thought and that I couldn't make a living off my Contest winnings. So I took the job.

"He was insatiable once he met my Pokémon. He'd always wanted to be a Trainer and wanted me to teach him. I talked his parents into getting him his first couple Pokémon: Vulpix and Ivysaur. Then he asked me to help him catch more.

"He was always drawn to Fire-types, and this place seems to attract them, including some pretty exotic ones." She chuckled a little.

"So this is where you found Larvesta and Fletchinder," Vale guessed.

"Yep. And where he found that stone. About a year ago, it was. He's gotten a little obsessed. He says he's heard it talking to him. I don't know what to make of it."

"I know I've seen that stone somewhere before. I just can't remember where." Vale grabbed a handful of her hair as though she was about to pull it out. "It's infuriating."

"Vale," Nora called. "You may want to see this."

Vale leapt up and stepped out from under the overhanging slab of marble she and Harmony had been sitting under.

Nora came running up. "Look," she said, pointing to the sky.

Vale looked where she was pointing and saw a rapidly growing dark spot.

"I think someone's coming this way," Nora said.

"Friend or enemy, do you reckon?" Vale asked.

"These days, I don't think we should take chances."

"Yeah, good point."

"Orion!" Harmony called and ran off, heading in the direction Damien and Orion had gone.

 _Damien_ , Vale thought. She started to run in that direction, then turned back to look at Nora.

Who was staring at the sky, wide-eyed and slack-jawed.

Vale followed her line of sight, and then she almost froze too.

The dark spot was much closer now, close enough that Vale could make out what it was.

A gray, dragon-like Pokémon was flying toward them on two thin wings that were not the same size. Its legs were quite thin as well and did not look capable of supporting its body. Its tail was a diminutive, damaged-looking version of Reshiram's and Zekrom's own turbine tails.

Kyurem. With a man on his back.

A wave of bitter cold washed over the two girls, probably the ice dragon's aura. It lasted only a second, and as it receded Nora finally started to run toward Vale.

The dragon's shadow fell across her.

"Run," Nora mouthed, just before the man leapt from Kyurem and tackled her to the ground.

Vale was no match for a Legend. A battle here and now would only end in defeat. She needed help.

So, as much as it pained her to leave Nora, she took off running, looking for Harmony, Orion, and Damien.

Who she almost ran directly into as they headed back in her direction.

"What's going on?" Harmony asked.

Vale explained. Orion's eyes went wide.

"There's really a Legend back there?" he asked in sheer awe. He was once again holding the white stone.

"With a rider. And I think they caught Nora," Vale said.

"Oh, shit," Damien said in horror.

"Language!" Harmony scolded.

The four of them snuck back toward the overhang where Vale had been talking to Harmony.

Damien gasped when he saw.

A man in jeans and a semi-formal button-down shirt had Nora by the arm. He had a gun in his other hand, a gun he was pointing at her. Kyurem hung back, seeming to be watching passively. Nora's face was unreadable, but, knowing her, she was probably more angry than scared.

Another wave of bitter cold washed over them. Again, it only lasted for a second, but that was more than enough time to set Damien's teeth chattering.

Vale waved at the others, telling them to go hide. Damien grabbed Orion and pulled him into the shadow of a broken column. Harmony stuck with Vale, and the two of them kept creeping forward.

About twenty feet back from the clear area where Kyurem had landed, two columns and a piece of roof had fallen in a pile. Vale and Harmony ducked behind it.

"I know you know," the man was saying. "You are traveling with her, and I know she felt it here."

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about," Nora said, sounding awfully confident considering there was a gun pointed at her head.

"I think you do," he said. "And one way or another, you will tell me."

Nora's finger twitched. She was about to reach for a Pokéball.

Instantly, the man pressed his gun to her temple, pushing her head to the side.

Harmony clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out.

"Test me, and I will kill you," the man said to Nora.

Vale was absorbed in sizing up the situation. Obviously, the biggest problem here was Kyurem. She'd handled men with guns before. But a Legendary Pokémon? That was way out of her league. The real question was how this guy had control of the dragon in the first place. She remembered reading about how Team Plasma had managed to brainwash him and then had used his powers to commit what amounted to a terrorist attack on Opelucid City. Was that happening again?

Vale was so lost in thought that she didn't initially notice Harmony step out from their hiding place.

"How dare you!" Harmony cried. "How dare you come here and threaten children."

She pulled out a Pokéball. "Mawile, go!" The little Pokémon materialized on the grass. Vale clenched her hand reflexively into a fist. Harmony would get Nora killed if she wasn't careful. Vale forced that thought away before her mind could conjure up an image of Nora being shot.

"You think you can stand against a Legendary?" the man asked.

"With a Steel/Fairy-type? I like my chances," Harmony shot back.

"Do you think you can do it before I shoot her?" he threatened, jabbing his gun at Nora's head.

Harmony gave him a murderous look, but her resolve seemed to leave her. She recalled her Pokémon.

"Call your friends out of their hiding places," he ordered.

"Who says I have anyone with me?" Harmony folded her arms.

"I do. I _saw_ her. Call them, or this one," he shifted his grip on Nora, pulling her against him and putting his arm across her chest, "dies first."

Damien suddenly ran forward. "Hey," he said. "I know you. You gave me Metang."

Vale realized she recognized this man as well.

She stood up. "I remember you too. You're the guy who tried to buy Servine from me."

"Asshole," Nora muttered.

"Shut up," he snarled at her. Then, in a softer tone, he said: "Yes, I did both. We've been watching you both since you got those Delta Pokémon."

Nearly all of the tension in the situation had now evaporated. Vale made a mental note to thank Damien later.

"I thought that's what those were," Harmony said.

"You're from Perfection, right?" Vale said.

"Indeed. Taen, Perfection admin," he introduced himself.

Orion came running up then. "Can someone please explain what's going on?"

Taen's eyes went to the stone Orion still clutched as though pulled there by a magnet.

"Here's the deal," he said. "Hand over the stone, and I'll let your friend go."

"Orion, give me the stone," Harmony said.

"No," the boy said, clutching it tighter.

"Orion, it's just a rock. It's not worth Nora's life."

"If he wants it, it's got to be more than that," Damien chimed in. "Right, Vale?"

Vale was still thinking. She remembered Harmony's words: "This place attracts Fire-types."

 _I know I've seen that stone somewhere. A round, white stone…how many of those can there be in the world? Harmony said they found it here. What if…_

A wave of energy washed across her.

 _That energy…_ She turned and looked at Orion. The stone in his hands was starting to glow.

And then she remembered.

"Orion!" she cried. "Drop it!" She tackled the boy to the ground. He lost his grip on the stone, which flew out of his hands and landed in the grass between the two groups.

"Get it, Kyurem," Taen ordered. The dragon didn't move.

"Vale, what was that?" Damien asked.

"I knew I'd seen that stone before, and I just remembered where. My dad's copy of _Concerning the Legends_. That's the Light Stone."

The stone exploded.

A pillar of fire rushed upward, coalescing into the form of a beautiful white-scaled dragon. Her twin hair-like crests were blown back by the flames that surrounded her. Their tips glowed molten orange, as did her eyes.

" **Reshiram,** " Kyurem greeted in a gravely baritone voice. " **Still in protest, I see.** "

" **I will never acknowledge the Edict,** " Reshiram growled back.

The white Dragon-type was hovering above the temple ruins, still wreathed in fire. If anyone saw this, they would all have a very awkward situation on their hands. Vale checked the time on her PokéGear. It was 5:30, rush hour.

 _Shit!_

Reshiram's attention was now directed towards Taen. " **You,** " she ordered, " **will release the girl and leave this place.** "

Taen and Kyurem exchanged a look, and they apparently decided that picking a fight with Kyurem's more powerful sister was not worth it. Taen shoved Nora to the ground and climbed onto the Ice-type Legend, who hurriedly took flight. It was the weirdest takeoff Vale had ever seen. One second the dragon was on the ground, the next he was in the air. He didn't flap his wings; he just pushed off from the ground and was suddenly airborne.

As they vanished, Vale called out in as respectful a tone as she could manage: "Lady Reshiram, not to intrude, but you should probably land. If someone were to see you…"

Reshiram seemed to realize at that exact moment that she was putting on quite the display. The nimbus of fire surrounding her abruptly winked out of existence, and she landed between two of the still-standing columns. Her eyes and crests stopped glowing, her eyes returning to their natural blue.

Nora stood up and dusted herself off, looking none the worse for wear—either physically or emotionally—for being taken hostage.

"Thanks for the save," she told the white Legend.

" **You are quite welcome,** " the dragon said. " **I could not simply ignore what was happening, especially since I was the reason they came here.** "

"So that's what he meant by an energy source," Nora said.

"And it was your aura attracting all the Fire-types to the ruins, right?" Vale asked.

" **That is correct.** "

Orion was staring at Reshiram with sheer awe in his eyes. "I knew I heard the stone speaking to me," he said.

" **And I must thank you for taking the time to listen,** " Reshiram said. " **Communicating in that form is not easy.** "

Orion reached for a Pokéball. Reshiram shook her head.

" **Your Pokémon are too inexperienced to face me. You are not yet worthy.** "

The boy hung his head. Reshiram crouched down and gently lifted his chin with one claw. " **One day soon, that may no longer be the case. Until then, you know where I will be.** "

Orion jumped back as Reshiram's form dissolved into a pillar of fire, which shrunk down until the Light Stone once again appeared in the grass. There was no sign the Legendary Pokémon of Truth had ever been there.

Aside from the huge grin on Orion's face, that is.

* * *

Vale's head was spinning with the amount of information she had just received, information that had, as always seemed to be the case, resulted in more questions than answers. Perfection had put a tail on her, and not just any tail. He was an admin, an admin who had a Legendary Pokémon at his disposal. Why was he tailing her in the first place? He had evidently detected the energy that hung around the temple ruins, energy that she could still feel, she realized, even though the Light Stone was once again inert, giving no sign of its true nature. Had he also detected the energy of the Spark that marked her as Chosen? Vale didn't have to be an expert on the cults to know that they would probably try to kill her if they knew what she was. More than they already were, that is. She wondered if Persephone had somehow known. But then why steal her memories?

Kyurem was another issue. Why would he let himself be controlled by someone like Taen? Legends had allowed themselves to be captured by worthy Trainers countless times throughout history, but they always chose very carefully. No Legend would willingly submit to the sort of person who could take a girl hostage, put a gun to her head, threaten her life, and do all of it seemingly without hesitation. Vale supposed Perfection could have taken a page from Team Plasma's book with regard to keeping him controlled, but it didn't seem that way. He had, after all, barely budged when Taen had ordered him to pick up the stone. Likely, he, unlike his rider, had recognized what it truly was.

Then there was Reshiram. Another Legend, one of the most powerful of them all, in flagrant defiance of the Edict.

The first indication of the Legends having left the world for good had been the reservoirs of energy that existed in places like Sky Pillar and Dragonspiral Tower vanishing, seemingly overnight. Priests and clerics of the Church of Arceus had prayed almost nonstop for days afterward, begging to know why it had happened, if nothing else. After news of the Team Flare incident had hit the news, they'd concluded, not at all unreasonably, that humanity was being punished. Many people now believed that the Legends no longer cared about the world they'd once protected.

Vale had been one of those, but now she wasn't so sure. First, Mew broke the Edict to save her, left, then came back and said that he was going to help her. Then, Celebi came along with her talk about loopholes. Then Reshiram, who was apparently "in protest."

It was never a good idea to tell a god he was wrong, but if the Legends disliked the Edict as much as humans did…

* * *

 **AN: While in Suntouched City, Vale, Nora, and Damien are asked to help out a young Trainer in need of motivation...**

 **This chapter, sigh. This is probably the most important chapter in the entire story prior to the arrival in Helios City. Aside from what happened to Nora, the standoff on the hill is as close to what happens in-game as I could get it. And that wasn't easy, since the presence of two major Legends doesn't exactly line up well with some of the lore of my AU. Once I figured out how to explain that, the chapter was easy to write. Proofreading it was not, however. It took forever to get the standoff scene to be suitably tense. I still don't know if it's there.**

 **So many characters introduced here. Orion and Harmony are both Gym leaders in-game, but since I cut the Gym circuit from the story I needed to do something else with them. I originally intended for Orion to be a Trainer worthy of Gym leadership. But after I realized the number of rare Pokemon on his team-and because Vale ripped through his team in the damage calcs-I decided that he wasn't actually that good and made him a rich kid with the beginnings of an entitlement complex.**

 **Harmony being a nanny was also rather spur-of-the-moment. I envisioned her as a mother figure, so it fit. Making her a Contest battler was a little more thought out. She's also pretty good at conventional battles, however. Her entire battle style is about coming across as unassuming and letting her opponents underestimate her. Also, Vale's opinion of Contests was inspired by my own. I don't like them at all.**

 **Taen is a jerk, but he's also an important character and will hopefully become more likeable later on. As for the big Kyurem question, he and Taen have a complex relationship that will be elaborated on in later chapters. If you're wondering how Perfection caught a Legend in the first place, I have a short story in the works that will explain that.**

 **Reshi's back! I loved her in BWL, and I couldn't wait to bring her back. I had a hard time coming up with a way to have her in this chapter, though. What gave me the idea about her protesting the Edict was a line from BWL about her being humanity's greatest advocate. That's not quite true anymore (remember, it's been a couple millennia), but she was the one most vehemently opposed to the Edict. As soon as it was passed officially, she took off to the human world and refused to come home. She's spent most of the last two centuries in Light Stone form because, protest or not, she still acknowledges the need to hide.**

 **A couple final notes. Vale constantly forgetting to tell her Pokemon to dodge is the result of me forgetting that's an option, which is the result of me writing battles using the game format, where dodging isn't an option.**

 **The Multi-sectarian Era is the name I gave the era of history where every Legend had a sect of worshipers, named such so I don't have to keep track of the exact number of sects. Most of Torren's cults started as attempts to bring back the old sects.**

 **Lastly, that was not a deus ex machina. Reshiram heard everything that was going on on the hill, both the conversation about Orion's motivation to train and what Taen was trying to do, and resolved to do something about both.**

 **Also, remember that final scene, where Vale is thinking. That's foreshadowing for a major subplot.**


	13. Chapter 12: Parting Ways

Harmony was not happy, and with good reason.

"I want you off this hill and away from Orion," she said. "Now."

"Aw! Why?" Damien asked.

"Because you attract dangerous people." She looked at Nora. "How are you so calm about this?"

"That wasn't the first time I've had a gun pointed at me," Nora said. "And it probably won't be the last."

"You see? This is not the sort of thing I want a young, impressionable mind exposed to."

"He came here looking for the stone, not because we were here," Nora countered.

"He also said he'd been following me, though," Vale put in. "You said he asked about an energy source, obviously the stone. But for all we know, that was a secondary objective. Let's face it. The three of us attract cultists. And Legendaries," she added with a pointed glance at Nora. "We should avoid involving innocent people in this if we can."

She looked at Harmony. "If you want us to leave, we'll leave."

"Thank you," Harmony said.

* * *

"Why did you do that?" Nora asked as they began the long walk back to the city proper.

"I think I made my reasons fairly clear," Vale said.

"Except they're wrong."

"Until we know for certain why cultists and Legends keep popping out of the woodwork around us—or maybe I should say 'me'—we need to at least try to keep regular people out of it."

"Wait a second," Damien chimed in. "How many Legends have you met, Vale?"

"Counting what just happened? Four."

"What the heck did I miss? Who's the fourth?"

Vale glanced around hurriedly to make sure no one was watching. "Nora's got Celebi keeping an eye on her the same way I've got Mew."

"If they're not supposed to come to our world anymore," Damien wondered, "why do they keep showing up?"

The two girls exchanged a look. "Your guess is as good as ours," Nora said.

* * *

The three of them made plans that evening in preparation for the next morning. They would be leaving early as usual, but what made this leg of the trip so different was length. Vale calculated that it would take three days to get from Suntouched to Metchi Town. That meant that it would be three days before they next had a chance to buy food or healing items, or anything else they might need. And _that_ meant that planning ahead was absolutely critical.

Vale still had most of a bag of specially formulated Pokémon food in her backpack, but Nora and Damien both needed to buy more. Both of them also needed to stock up on iron supplements for their Steel-types, and finding a store that sold those took a while. Vale and Damien each bought a couple of extra Pokéballs, just in case. And also because Damien was still one Pokémon short of having the team of four necessary to pass Jaern's challenge.

All three of them spent a good amount of Poké on healing items, in anticipation of the amount of training that would be done en route, and Vale spent an additional chunk of money on food. She was well aware that she would be crossing Rezzai Desert in only a few days' time.

* * *

The journey to Metchi Town was uneventful, almost alarmingly so after the excitement of the last few days. Vale was genuinely surprised that they didn't get attacked by cultists at least once.

Having three days without any unwelcome—and potentially life-threatening—interruptions meant that the three of them had a ridiculous amount of time to train their teams. Evolution ran rampant, and the Pokémon acquired a grand total of 23 new moves between them.

Some of the newly acquired moves were quite scary. Nora's Leavanny picked up Fell Stinger, a move that greatly boosted the user's attack power if the opponent fainted after being hit with it. It wasn't the easiest move to effectively utilize but could be terrifying in the right circumstances. Vale felt like her stomach had dropped into her shoes when Damien's Pokédex announced that "Charmeleon has learned Destiny Bond."

Phanpy was the first to evolve, and Vale actually jumped for joy when she saw that he'd learned Magnitude. Not the greatest Ground-type move, but she'd make do for now.

Phanpy was followed to evolution by both Luxio, as well as Quilava. Honedge also evolved, drawing a relieved "Finally!" from Nora.

Shortly after Honedge finally evolved, Metchi Town came into view on the riverbank. It was around seven o'clock in the afternoon by Vale's PokéGear.

The end of the eighth day.

* * *

Despite being on the river, Metchi Town is not a flourishing trade center. That honor goes to Vipik City instead. With almost all trade heading further downstream, the town is one of the poorest areas in any of the Seven Regions. Metchi is trapped in a cycle of poverty. Its only exploitable resource is the river. And due to environmental concerns, the only way the people are willing to exploit that resource is by catering to the boats that pass by. Except few, if any, bother to stop. The money necessary to build a better dock, a refueling station, and other things that would attract more boaters isn't available.

Fishing is another industry in the area, but it was never developed to a great extent because the people were always extremely conscious—maybe overly so—of the dangers of overfishing. However, that produced one of the better-preserved aquatic environments in Torren and helped the town earn its one claim to fame. The fishing spots along the river are popular with catch-and-release fishermen, as well as scientists hoping to study the ecosystem and Trainers looking for Water-types.

* * *

The group didn't initially intend to spend the night in Metchi Town. While neither of them said anything, both Vale and Damien were painfully aware of the fact that they had only six days left to complete Jaern's challenge. The plan was to head immediately to the docks and charter a boat to take them to Vipik City. None of the three young Trainers were sure how much it would take to get there, so they were prepared to pool their funds. Vale only had 50 Poké left. Damien had less. They would have to get jobs in Vipik City.

The dock was not hard to find. Despite its rather dilapidated condition, it was actually the small town's principal structure, with the rest of the town laid out in a semi-circle around it on the shore. Instead of a beach, the shore was a steep drop. As the three friends got close, Vale could feel a faint energy residual that seemed to correspond to the line of the shore.

The best she could figure was that her newfound ability to detect energy was one of the powers of a Chosen. She hoped it was. As far as she was concerned, she deserved some sort of compensation for the amount of crap Arceus had been throwing her way.

The man they eventually found owned a small motorboat and said that he could get the three of them to Vipik City in about ten hours.

For the small fee of 200 Poké per person.

The task of haggling the price down to something they could actually pay fell to Nora, with, no doubt, no small amount of help from an unseen Celebi.

While Nora deliberated with the boatman, Damien took the time to voice some doubts.

"We're not supposed to take public transportation, remember?" he asked.

"Nora and I took the subway in Suntouched City. You took a Pidgeot. How's he going to find out we broke the rules if we don't tell him?" Vale countered.

"Suppose he's keeping an eye on us somehow?"

"Suppose he is," Vale said.

"I know how much this means to you. I don't want you to fail this."

"If we followed the rules to the letter, it would be impossible. I didn't initially consider how big the major cities of Torren are. Crossing Suntouched City on foot would probably take the better part of a day."

"I know, but…"

"I've waited for this chance since I was six. Now he's come along and he's dangling it just out of my reach. I refuse to lose, Damien."

"Refuse to lose what?" Nora asked, walking up.

Vale went pale.

"What's wrong?" Nora asked.

Vale and Damien exchanged a glance.

 _I have to tell her, don't I?_ Vale thought.

" ** _Yup,_** " said Mew's decidedly unhelpful voice in her head.

"I didn't tell you everything about when Damien and I saved Jaern's life," Vale said. Every word hurt. She knew how her friend would react.

"He was impressed with us,"

"Us?" Nora asked, looking at Damien. He'd come a long way toward earning her respect in Suntouched City, but she couldn't believe the bumbling kid she'd met in Midna Town could have impressed _anyone._

"And he offered us a chance to earn his sponsorship to go take another region's Gym challenge," Vale finished, with a sigh of relief. It did feel good to finally tell somebody.

Nora didn't react as violently as Vale had expected. At least, not at first.

"You need to make up your Arceus-damned mind, Vale," she said.

"What?"

"You told me you hated him!" Nora cried.

"I do," Vale replied.

"Then why the heck are you in league with that bastard?"

"I'm not 'in league' with anyone," Vale shot back.

"Yes. You. Are. You're a fucking collaborator."

"C-collaborator?" Vale stammered. "Is that what this is to you? A war?"

"Maybe that's what we need."

* * *

Nora stormed off after that. The boatman had heard the entire conversation, which created a bit of an awkward situation. Damien tried to lie about what had just happened but stumbled over his words, and then Vale tried to laugh the whole thing over, despite the feeling in the pit of her stomach. That actually worked, thanks to some Psychic intervention from Mew. Vale felt the energy as the move discharged.

He ended up charging them only ninety Poké total, which, while a lot less than the previous number, was still every last Poké they had.

He then said that he would need some time to prepare for the trip and recommended that Vale and Damien check out the fishing.

* * *

Luckily, they found a man willing to loan them his fishing rod.

Vale had only been fishing once; Damien never had. She was more than willing to go first to show him how to do it, however.

They chose a spot about a half-mile downstream from the dock, a place where a small channel diverged from the main part of the river and dead-ended into a deep pool. This would be a very good place to fish, since it was separated from the main current and would provide shelter for the fish. Or at least it would for regular fish. Vale honestly wasn't sure about the Pokémon.

The two of them sat down on the shore. Vale pulled out a Pokéball and set it on the grass beside her. Then she cast the fishing line.

Or tried to.

The first cast caught on a tree behind her. The second caught on her shirt, thankfully not breaking her skin. Finally, instead of casting the line, she reeled it out, laid down the rod, and tossed the hook into the water, just barely catching the rod before it went into the water too.

Once that was finally accomplished, they sat down on the shore.

"So what was that about?" Damien asked.

"With Nora?" Vale asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, she hates Jaern, even more than I do."

"I gathered," Damien said with a chuckle.

"It's not funny. When I told her how we saved his life in Telnor Town, she said we shouldn't have bothered."

Damien looked horrified.

"I tried to explain why him being killed was a very bad thing. I thought I'd convinced her. I guess I was wrong."

"She scared me," Damien admitted.

"She scared me too," Vale agreed. "I didn't realize just how…militant…she'd become about this. I'm worried what she might do."

"Like what?"

Vale gave him a serious look.

Damien considered it for a second. "You mean trying to kill him herself?" he finally asked, eyes going wide.

"Maybe. Hopefully Celebi will keep her from doing anything stupid."

"Hopefully," Damien repeated softly, looking toward the pool. "Vale!" he suddenly cried.

Vale looked too, just in time to see the bobbin on the fishing line dip below the surface.

She grabbed the fishing pole with both hands and yanked. The Pokémon on the end broke the surface of the water, leaping into the air.

It was a Feebas.

"Uh, throw it back," Damien said.

That was Vale's thought too. But first she had to get the hook out of the fish Pokémon's lip, and that meant getting it onto shore.

She started to reel it in. The fish thrashed in the air. The beginnings of a Splash attack struck the surface of the water, spraying both young Trainers thoroughly.

Vale staggered against Damien as the momentum of the flailing fish on the other end of the line threw her off balance.

The Feebas landed on the bank.

Right on top of the Pokéball Vale had laid out.

Before she could do anything, it had been sucked inside, leaving her staring in horror.

"A Feebas," she whispered. "My sixth team member is a Feebas."

She supposed she could release it, but that was her last Pokéball. Now that it had been used she would have to either buy another one or take it to a Pokémon Center and get its internal computer reset. Resetting the computer cost 10 Poké at minimum and was only worth it with the higher quality varieties of Pokéball. Buying a new ball cost only 3 Poké, but Vale didn't have even that, having just spent all her money on the boat fare. She would have to live with this catch, at least until she could earn more cash.

"Milotic are pretty good, though, right?" Damien asked.

"Sure, but do you know how Feebas evolve?"

"No."

"Contests, Damien. To evolve one, you basically have to train it as a Contest Pokémon. Ugh." She plopped back down on the grass and looked at the ball sitting beside her.

"You don't like Contests, do you?"

"Nope."

* * *

 _Arceus must hate me, or something,_ Vale thought.

To add insult to injury, Damien had caught a Corphish, both with a rod and in a Pokéball. And to add further injury on top of that, he'd done a good job of it, efficiently wearing the crab-like Pokémon down with Luxio.

Now, the two of them were on the boat, on the way to Vipik City and expecting to arrive by the following morning. That would be the morning of their ninth day on the road.

 _Five days,_ Vale thought. _My future is decided in five days._

She thought back to that picture on the cave wall. Her, standing in front of the Jade Tower. Was that an indication that they would get there in time?

 _Please, Arceus. Let it be._

They were in the boat's rather cramped below-deck area, lying on a pair of daybeds. This would be where they slept that night. Damien was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling, seemingly lost in thought.

Vale leaned over and pulled her bag up onto the bed beside her. She unzipped it and pulled out her sketchbooks, which she hadn't even touched since leaving home.

She picked one up and let it fall open to a random page.

Vale chuckled a little to herself. She'd almost forgotten about that drawing: a sketch of Rayquaza, drawn from memory after a dream about visiting Sky Pillar.

She pulled out a pencil and turned the page. She'd been thinking about drawing Mew…

"Sketching?" It was Damien.

"I used to draw Pokémon all the time."

"Which one were you planning on drawing?"

"Maybe Mew…"

"From memory?"

"Wouldn't be the first time."

Damien sat down on the bed. "Vale, why are they here?"

"The Legends?"

"I thought they didn't care about us anymore," Damien said.

"Nora and I have talked about that. We're confused too," Vale reassured. "But a can give you part of an answer."

"What?"

"I know why Mew is helping me."

"Why?"

"I don't suppose you read mythology."

"No, I don't. And you're being awfully evasive."

"According to certain stories, every once in a while, Arceus chooses a champion to be either a protector or a leader, depending on the state of the world. Early Chosen were the forgers of the bond between humans and Pokémon. Later ones were the heroes who fought those people like Cyrus who tried to play god with the world."

"And you're one of them?" Damien asked, wide-eyed.

"Nora seemed to think so. I think that's part of the reason she got so mad earlier." No doubt she would have despised the very notion of a Chosen siding with someone she perceived to be the enemy.

"Do you?"

"I thought it was a load of Tauros-crap initially, but then I found some evidence I couldn't refute."

"What?"

"On the way to Suntouched City, Nora and I found a cave. There were centuries-old carvings on the walls, and we realized they were prophecies foretelling all the Chosen. The last carving was of me."

"You're sure?" Damien asked.

"Yes. The girl in the picture…Mew was on her shoulder, and the Jade Tower was in the background, complete with carving. That thing's only been there for a year."

"That's amazing!" Damien cried.

"No, it isn't," Vale said, suddenly collapsing into tears.

"What's wrong?" he asked. He wasn't the most religious of people, but he couldn't understand why anyone would _not_ want such an honor.

"Don't you understand? This means that my life is already laid out for me!"

"That doesn't sound so bad. You know I'm not very good at decision-making."

"Well, then he should have picked you instead." Vale fell back against her pillows.

Damien wrapped his arms around her. She stopped crying, but only long enough to shove him away. She dropped her sketchbook and pencil on the ground beside the bed and then slipped under the covers, where she curled into a ball, looking away from Damien. He could hear her sobbing softly.

 _Please, tell me,_ she thought. _Why me?_

* * *

Vale and Damien were woken up the next morning by the boatman coming down to announce that they were within sight of Vipik City. They quickly gathered their things and ran on deck to see that they were indeed approaching the city. But they weren't all that close. Vipik, like Suntouched, could be seen from a long way off, but the reason for that was the smog that perpetually blanketed the place, not sunlight reflecting off hundreds of solar panels.

As the boat approached the city, Vale looked up to the sky.

She had thought long and hard the previous night and had come to a decision. She was done asking, done pleading. If there had been no answers for those priests 200 years ago, why should she expect that there would be any for her now? It was time to stop asking and start answering for herself.

 _My life is my own,_ she thought. _I refuse to be a pawn on_ anybody's _chessboard._

* * *

 **AN: Revealed secrets drive a wedge between Vale and Nora.**

 **I can't believe this story is at twelve chapters. I remember when I thought it would never get uploaded.**

 **Anyway, this chapter is mostly filler, but filler chapters can be very good for character development. Basically my main guideline for writing this chapter was that if there's any secret one of the three protagonists (Vale, Nora, and Damien) is keeping from any of the others, it needs to be revealed in this chapter. And well, you can see how well that worked out.**

 **Not much happens in Metchi Town in-game. There's a rival battle with Nora that's probably one of the harder battles in the game, because she uses the full power of her team against you, Celebi included. I decided to cut that, and instead put in this argument scene.**

 **That energy Vale feels along the bank is because I got the idea that some Legendary tried to help out the town at some point by manipulating the river.**

 **Lastly, the Feebas. That probably felt a bit convoluted, and it kind of was. I really wanted Vale to have a Milotic on her team because it's my favorite Water-type, because I thought its ability to calm agitated minds would be helpful for her, and because I felt she needed something that could put in some good work with Ice Beam. Unfortunately, I realized that the only way Vale would have a Feebas on her team is if she caught it by accident. So, this happened.**

 **Pokemon Owned by Nintendo GameFreak. Vale is my OC, but all other human characters belong to thesuzerain.**


	14. Chapter 13: Stuck

Vipik City is not a nice place to live, and the reason for that is instantly apparent to any visitors. Pollution. For an alarmingly lengthy period of time, the city and no ordinances regarding waste disposal. And the disposal services that did exist, which weren't free since they weren't provided by the city, charged more than a decent chunk of the city's population could afford.

The garbage problem has since been solved, but not before the river ecosystem downstream from the city was hopelessly destroyed. On top of that, the city's factories pollute the air. While Pokémon are usually hardier and more resilient than ordinary animals (and are certainly more so than humans), they tend to also be more sensitive to environmental contamination, so within the city, only Poison-types can survive for extended periods. However, some species, like Rattata, Meowth, and various Bug-types, along with rats and foxes, do venture within the city limits fairly regularly.

As for the people, they seem to have adapted fairly well to the state of their city and all the health problems that come with it. The state of the air and water is the butt of a lot of dark humor. Local legend states that Shaymin once tried to help the city out. She felt that purging the pollution was easily within her capabilities. She was wrong. The smog stubbornly refused to respond to the first Seed Flare, and before she could charge another, she was swarmed by angry Koffing and Grimer, who didn't want the place purified.

This story is probably made-up, since no ordinary Pokémon would ever attack a Legend, but people tell it anyway. The idea behind it seems to be that if a Legend couldn't fix their city, they might as well get used to it how it is.

* * *

Vale had seen Vipik City once from above, on Racer's back with her dad. That perspective hadn't done it justice. Now, seeing it from the ground, she was horrified. She was used to the largely untouched wilderness of the Shade Woods, or at the very least the plains around Suntouched City. Compared to that, Vipik seemed like the worst possible extreme of human disregard for the environment.

And beneath that was the sneaking suspicion that her journey would end here. She certainly wouldn't be getting much farther unless she could make some more money. And what jobs could be waiting in a city like this?

* * *

"No kids." The man slammed the door in Vale's face.

"Come on, please," she called after him. "Just for the day. Come on. I really need to make some money."

There was no reply.

 _Strike…what number is that now?_ she thought.

" ** _Seven,_** " Mew replied.

"I'm done, aren't I?" she said.

" ** _Eighth time's the charm?_** "

"No. I think I'm done. This trip is over."

Suddenly, she felt a stinging pain in her cheek.

"Ow," she said. _Did you just use Psychic to slap me?_

" ** _Did Red give up? Did Brandon? Or Serena?_** "

 _Don't compare me to the other Chosen!_

" ** _Then don't let a little adversity stop you._** "

"Fine," Vale said. "One more."

She knocked on the next door. A less-than-friendly-looking middle-aged woman answered it.

"Hi, ma'am. I'm new in town, and I'm looking for work. And I was wondering…"

"Traveling Trainer, huh?" the woman asked.

"Yes, ma'am. I…"

"Hold on." The door closed.

" ** _You see?_** " Mew asked.

After a moment, the door opened again. Vale was about to say something when a huge bag filled with trash came flying through the opening. She caught it—and fortunately it was tied shut so garbage didn't go everywhere—but she had to grab the railing to keep from falling backwards down the stairs from the momentum.

"Here, take my trash out," the woman said.

"What?" Vale asked.

"We don't like your kind around here. All you do is bring trouble with you. Now, get off my porch."

 _You were saying?_ she asked Mew.

* * *

Vale dropped the bag of garbage at the edge of the street, and then headed down the road to a bench next to a dried-up fountain. This was the place she'd agreed to meet Damien after their job-hunting that morning.

He joined her after only a few minutes.

"Please tell me you had some luck," she said as he sat down beside her.

"No, but some guy gave me this," he said, holding up a book. The cover said _Tourin' Torren_. Vale rolled her eyes.

"For free?" she asked.

"Yep. You know, I didn't know tourists still came to Torren."

"Let me see that."

Damien handed her the book. She flipped to the copyright page. The date of publication was listed as 2980 A.J.

"They don't, Damien. This book is twenty years old. "

"Oh. Well, I guess I really did have no luck."

"Same here. So what are we supposed to do for money?"

Damien shrugged.

* * *

The plan had been to find some odd jobs to do in the morning, work all day, and then go to the Pokémon Center and get rooms around dinnertime. That would ensure that the rooms and food would be free all the way up until the following evening.

Unfortunately, a major portion of that plan had failed. They had no odd jobs to do. And that meant they had no money.

Vale had never experienced being genuinely broke before. When the League had disbanded and her father had been forced into an early retirement, he'd at least been paid a generous pension that would have allowed him to put food on the table for decades to come even without the money from her mother's job at the clinic.

Being quite literally without a Poké to her name made her feel so utterly _powerless_. She had never understood the security money gave until she'd found herself lacking both. Without money, any chance of completing the challenge in time seemed to have evaporated. Even her long-term plans to remove Jaern from the office of Augur now felt unattainable.

She looked at the six Pokéballs in her bag. Ivysaur, Growlithe, Servine, Luxray, and Donphan.

And Feebas.

She still couldn't believe it had worked out that way. That her Water-type had ended up being one of the weakest Pokémon in the world. Not to mention something that could only be evolved through Contest-training. But it did kind of make sense. After she'd been so insanely lucky as to catch a _Contrary_ Snivy, she supposed she was probably overdue to end up with a less-than-stellar team member.

She supposed she could just let the Feebas go. After all, she only needed a team of four to pass the challenge, and she had five even without the Water-type. But that would be a waste of a Pokéball, especially since she didn't have the money to buy any more, much less get one reset. And assuming she could manage to get it to evolve, a Milotic would be a big help if and when she finally got around to challenging Gyms.

Of course, that would mean she'd have to train it. Once she made it to Helios and earned the sponsorship, assuming she got there at all, she could back-track to Suntouched City and get help from Harmony. Assuming Harmony would even talk to her after what had happened in the ruins…

* * *

Vale found herself staring at a map of the city, looking for a good place to train. If she was going to keep Feebas on the team, then she desperately needed to train her.

But where to do that? There was no park in Vipik City like there was in Suntouched. The obvious place to train a Water-type was in some body of water—or at least, it was in any other city. The river near Vipik was too polluted for anything other than Poison-types to survive for long periods.

The river likely had a healthy population of Qwilfish and maybe Skrelp as well, but considering Feebas knew only Splash, Tackle, and maybe Flail, training her against wild Pokémon was definitely a bad idea.

So that raised a second question. _How_ did she do it?

She reached for Feebas's Pokéball and let the Water-type out.

"What am I supposed to do with you?" she whispered.

"Miss, you need to put your Pokémon away," said a voice.

Vale gritted her teeth. Put Feebas _away_? She wasn't a toy. But then Vale turned and saw that the speaker was a police officer, and then promptly decided that making a snarky comment was not in her best interest.

"What?" she asked.

"No training within the city limits," he said, pointing to a sign that declared that very thing, a sign that Vale had conveniently missed. "Except in designated areas."

Vale recalled Feebas. "Well, where's the closest one of those?"

He pointed past the sign. "Down that way. Take the second left, then the third right. Can't miss it."

* * *

He was right. There was a huge sign out in front of the building that proclaimed it a "Pokémon Training Center." Vale had no idea what those were. She'd never heard of them before.

The inside of the building looked like a Pokémon-lover's paradise, which was a nice change after how much the rest of the city seemed to be hostile toward Trainers.

"How can I help you?" asked the attendant at the front desk, a young man wearing a Charmander hat and a half-hearted smile.

"I'm just going to look around," she said.

She did exactly that. The areas closest to the door seemed mostly geared toward Pokémon beauty contests, with mirrors, a couple racks of various outfits, and even a Pokémon spa. Vale made a mental note to bring her team here if she ever wanted to reward them with some pampering.

The training areas were farther back from the door and enclosed with glass paneling. Most were plain, intended for standard battle training, but a couple had accessories on racks all along the walls.

Only one of these was occupied, by a teenage boy and girl with a Kirlia and a Masquerain, respectively.

Vale knocked on the door. The boy gestured for her to come in.

She did. "Is this Contest training?" she asked.

"What do you think?" the girl asked.

"Sorry. Probably not the smartest question." She let Feebas out. "Any advice?"

"Oh, my Arceus. " the girl gasped.

"Where did you catch it?" the boy asked.

"Near Metchi Town," Vale said. "And it was by accident."

"I'll trade you," he said. "Kirlia for her."

"Well, if that isn't proof that the Contest circuit is fundamentally different from the League…" Vale muttered. "I'm not trading her," she said. "I'm guessing Milotic are pretty popular in Contests."

"What was that guy's name, the Sootopolis City Gym leader when all that crap went down in Hoenn?" the girl asked.

"You mean with Team Aqua and Team Magma?" Vale asked. "Wallace, I think."

"Yeah, him," the girl said. "He started the craze, and it just stuck. So any plans to enter her?"

"She can't do any Contests until this thing evolves," the boy pointed out.

"Actually," Vale said. "I don't particularly like Contests."

"Well, you can't train a Milotic for standard battles," the boy said.

"Wallace did, if I remember correctly," Vale said.

The girl laughed. "She got you there, Jake," she said.

The boy, Jake, looked rather Mareep-ish. "I'll help you out," he said.

* * *

Jake and the girl, who turned out to be his sister, Rachel, helped Vale out as well as they could, but they quickly ran into a snag, in the form of the simple fact that Feebas couldn't do much of anything other than Splash and Flail.

Jake soon decided that PokéBlocks were the only thing that would work.

Vale spent a couple of additional hours training her other Pokémon. Jake and Rachel continued to help her, because they were starting to like her, because they were impressed with her Pokémon, and because it also helped them train for the battle portions of the Contests. It wasn't a particularly long training session, but it was long enough for Servine to learn Leaf Blade and for Ivysaur to pick up Calm Mind.

When Vale finally left, all three agreed that they would meet back there the following morning. Jake and Rachel spent most of every day there while their parents worked during the summer.

* * *

Vale wandered the city. Technically, she was looking for the Pokémon Center, where she intended to meet up with Damien and rent some rooms. But she was also scanning for any place that sold PokéBlocks, books on training, or anything else she might need to help train Feebas.

She didn't see much on this street, just a couple of clothing stores, a sketchy-looking restaurant, and a small, covered stall selling…were those TMs?

 _Holy Arceus!_ Vale thought.

She broke into a run, skidding to a stop in front of the stall.

She was right. They _were_ TMs. This was amazing.

Vale had seen how much the right TM moves could make a difference countless times while watching reruns of old League tournament matches. The Torren League had always sold TMs on the premises of wherever the League was being held. Trainers were allowed to change their Pokémon's movesets in between matches, but they could only do so using TMs sold at the tournament. Outside TMs were banned.

And the League charged truly exorbitant amounts for those TMs, which likely gave an unfair advantage to wealthier Trainers. The League was a for-profit organization. They made decisions based on the amount of money they would earn over any other factor.

If she could teach each of her Pokémon a couple of TM moves, that would give her team quite the boost, maybe enough to beat Damien the next time they fought. Or even _Nora_.

Now that would be a good feeling…

"What can I do for you?" asked the clerk attending the stall.

What TM would be the best for her to pick up? She thought through some typical competitive movesets for each of her Pokémon.

Luxray was at its most competitive with Superpower, but that wasn't a TM move. Wild Charge was an excellent choice for type coverage on any Fire-type, but it could be hard to find for exactly that reason.

And then she knew what she needed to get.

"Do you have any Ice Beam TMs?" she asked.

The clerk pulled something out from under the counter. "You're in luck. This is the last one I've got," he said.

"Popular?" Vale asked.

"Not really. One person bought up most of the ones I had. Said he worked for the Augur when I asked why."

"Why is Jaern buying up Ice Beam TMs?" Vale wondered aloud.

"Blizzard too," the clerk said.

It could have been a no-brainer question. Jaern's strongest Pokémon was a Salamence. He certainly had a motive to buy up all the Ice-type TMs he could get his hands on: so they couldn't be used against him.

But Vale couldn't help but feel like something else was going on. If nothing else, she'd better buy this one while she could.

"How much? For this one."

"For you? 25 Poké."

That was far less than Vale had expected. Many shops, she knew thanks to her research, asked 100 Poké for even the least useful TMs. The League priced theirs closer to 200 or even 300.

And then she remembered that she had no money.

"Can you put it on hold for me?" she asked.

"One day. No longer."

* * *

Vale made it to the Pokémon Center at around 7:00 that night, after hours of combing the streets. She was still angry over how unproductive the day had been. Having no money sucked.

The building's roof was still hung with banners and streamers left over from the region-wide celebration of the 3000th anniversary of the Joining that had happened earlier that year. It hadn't been as exciting an affair as it could have been, what with the Separation and its effects hanging over the festivities like rain clouds, despite the fact that the festival had been on a beautiful, sunny day at the beginning of spring.

The state of the decorations now reflected that. They'd been so weathered in the intervening weeks that they were almost unrecognizable.

Damien was waiting out front. He waved when he saw her.

"Please tell me you had better luck than me," she called as she walked up to him.

Damien shook his head. "Not unless yours is somehow in the negatives."

Vale couldn't help but crack a smile. "That bad, huh?"

"People kept trying to sell me stuff, and they wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. Thankfully, I literally don't have a Poké to my name."

"I didn't make any money either. I found a couple kids who tried to help me out with Feebas, but they just told me I need to buy PokéBlocks."

"Do you think we're going to make it to Helios?" Damien asked.

Vale was about to say "no" when she remembered Mew's words from earlier.

 _Don't let a little adversity stop you_.

"We'll find a way," she said. "If we have to, we'll find a PokéMart and sell some stuff."

"Or, if worse comes to worst, you can just get Mew to Teleport you there."

"I could," Vale agreed, "but I don't want to. It tires him out."

"Excuse me," said a voice behind them. "Did I just hear you mention Mew?"

Vale grimaced. They were stupid, talking about Legends where anyone could hear.

Vale turned around to face the newcomer…

…and then her stomach dropped into her shoes.

Standing behind them was a man. He was dressed nondescriptly in simple clothes, but his blue hair left little doubt in Vale's mind. This was an Abyssal Cultist.

"No," Vale said, perhaps a little too quickly.

"I'm quite sure I heard you say he was helping you."

Vale froze. Luckily, Damien came to the rescue. He laughed a fake laugh, a good fake laugh, and then said: "Why would a Legend be helping us? Don't you know they don't do that anymore?"

"Indeed," the man muttered. He turned and walked away.

Vale's stomach was all in knots. She was positive he was going to tell his leader about what he'd overheard.

"Damien, what have we done?" she asked softly.

* * *

 **AN: Vale and Damien arrive in Vipik City and quickly hit a bit of a roadblock regarding the fact that they have no money...**

 **This was a hard chapter to write, particularly the training scene. I had writer's block for a couple weeks regarding how to do that scene.**

 **Not much to talk about here that I can think of. Just to remember that bit about Jaern buying up TMs.**


	15. Chapter 14: The Crashing Wave

Vale had a hard time sleeping that night. She had inadvertently let slip to a cultist that she had a Legend watching over her. There was no doubt in her mind that the whole Abyssal Cult now knew.

How would they react? The Abyssals weren't as violent as the Cult of Darkrai, but they were still ruthless and cruel, as the encounter on the way to Suntouched City had shown.

All through breakfast, she debated not going to meet up with Rachel and Jake at the Training Center. Her vow to not let fear keep her from living still stood, but she would not risk putting others in danger.

But would they really be in danger? Audrey clearly wasn't afraid to strike at a target in broad daylight, surrounded by witnesses, but the Abyssals weren't known for killing at random. Not much was known about Audrey, but that seemed to suggest that she didn't condone excessive bloodshed.

* * *

"Kirlia, go," Jake called, sending out his main Pokémon.

Vale considered her team for a second. None of her Pokémon were particularly weak to either Psychic or Fairy.

"Servine," she called. The Grass-type hit the field.

"Leaf Tornado," she ordered as she pulled out her Pokédex.

A blast of sharp leaves shot across the room. The Kirlia tried to dodge but wasn't quite fast enough. Vale watched its energy drop to slightly above fifty percent.

"Confusion." Kirlia's eyes started to glow.

"Don't look. Get in close and use Leaf Blade." Servine darted across the room, swinging a glowing green blade.

"Dodge, Kirlia, just like we trained." Kirlia leapt over Servine's strike, turned a flip, and then landed behind him.

Vale opened her mouth to warn her Pokémon, but Servine was already moving. As Kirlia landed, he smacked her with a Vine Whip, knocking her back. The Psychic-type retaliated with Confusion, and this time, Servine didn't look away in time. His second Vine Whip strike hit him in the face.

"Yes! He's Confused." Jake punched the air.

"Try a Leaf Tornado," Vale called.

The blast of leaves missed its target by a considerable margin.

"Calm Mind." Kirlia closed her eyes and focused. Her body glowed the telltale blue of a stat-enhancing move.

 _This isn't good,_ Vale thought. "Try Mega Drain."

The blue glow was replaced by a green one as Servine leeched energy from his opponent. Vale glanced at her Pokédex display and saw that the energy gained was not enough to make up for the damage done by the Confusion attack and Servine hitting himself with a Vine Whip.

"Double Team," Jake was getting desperate now. Kirlia's image seemed to flicker slightly, like a TV screen just before the power went out. Vale hated Double Team. It made her eyes hurt. The move was banned in tournament matches for exactly that reason: because it affected the Trainer as well as the Pokémon.

"Leaf Tornado again." Again, the move went wide. Vale wasn't sure if that was because of Servine's being Confused or due to his opponent's having a Double Team active.

"Calm Mind again."

 _And here I thought this would be an easy battle._

"Try Leaf Blade again, but be ready for the dodge."

Again Servine took off, running across the field, blade in hand.

"Give him some Magical Leaves."

A storm of glowing leaves shot toward Servine as he ran. He leapt to the side, but the leaves simply altered their course. Several struck him, doing a small amount of damage.

And then Servine struck with Leaf Blade. Kirlia, focused on throwing Magical Leaves, was unprepared to dodge and collapsed to the ground.

"I think calling Magical Leaf was a mistake," Jake said.

"I think so," Vale agreed. "You were running circles around me with the Calm Minds and Double Teams. And that dodging. How'd you teach her to move like that?"

"Contest training."

* * *

A couple hours and several battles later, Vale was as happy with the state of her team as she'd ever been. Luxray had learned Thunder Fang, and Growlithe had finally picked up Flamethrower.

Ivysaur had evolved. Delta Venusaur had the same coloration as Delta Ivysaur. His body was dark pink spotted with purple. The leaves on his back were green spotted with purple and dark pink. Instead of a tree growing from where the leaves came together, as a normal Venusaur had, he had a purple crystal formation growing there instead.

At the very end of the training session, Servine also evolved. Vale jumped for joy, punching the air.

But then her Pokédex announced that he had learned a new move.

"Coil? Really?" Vale asked looking at the display. "Well, that sucks."

"Coil's an okay move," Rachel said.

"Not when your Serperior is Contrary."

* * *

Just when Vale thought everything was going pretty well, the universe insisted, once again, on proving her wrong.

It happened when she returned to the Pokémon Center.

The nurse was standing in the lobby, waiting for her. She was holding an envelope.

"You're Vale Darcy, right?" she asked.

"Yes," Vale said slowly. Just from the woman's tone, she knew there was no way this could be good.

"Someone left this at the counter for you." She held out the envelope.

Vale took it…

…and almost dropped it when she saw the symbol on the front.

The symbol of the Abyssal Cult: the crashing wave, symbolizing the power and fury of the sea.

Vale turned and ran up the stairs to her room.

* * *

Inside the rented room, Vale opened the letter. Inside was a short message, neatly written on stationary stamped with the crashing wave symbol.

 _We know about Mew,_ read the first line.

As Vale kept reading, her stomach dropped even lower than it had the previous night.

 _We have recently acquired something—or rather, someone—I believe you care about,_ it read. _If you want him back, be at the Vipik City dump at 3:00 today. If you don't come…well, there's no shortage of tragic accidents that can happen to someone in a place like that…_

There was no signature.

Vale bit back tears and forced herself to focus. The current time was 12:27. She had two hours to or so to plan. She'd taken on Abyssal cultists before, but only in small numbers and always with help.

And it was only due to luck that she had survived the last encounter with them.

She wished Nora was there. Nora would know what to do.

" **Panicking again, are we?** " Mew had just materialized in the room.

Vale was relieved to hear his voice, and his timing was phenomenal. But that was overshadowed by her frustration.

She stood up and shoved the letter in his face. "Read it!" she snapped.

" **What's going on, Vale?** " Mew asked.

"Don't you know? The Abyssal Cult has Damien, and I don't know how to save him and…" She started to cry.

Mew draped his tail comfortingly across her shoulders.

" **That's why I'm here**."

"But you're not taking it seriously!"

" **I…,** " he paused. " **I'm sorry.** "

"This is my fault," Vale whispered.

" **As I recall, he was the one who mentioned me.** "

"I could have told him to shut up," Vale said.

" **Would that have made a difference?** "

"Yes!" she sobbed.

" **Maybe,** " Mew corrected.

"Just tell me what to do."

" **No.** "

"You're a _Legend_. You're supposed to help people!"

" **Not by solving their problems for them.** "

"One wrong move, and I'll get him killed. You have to help me."

" **I will not allow him to get hurt.** "

"Really?"

" **Do you trust me or not?** "

She thought for a second. Did she trust him? After everything he'd done to help her, there was only one answer she could give. "Yes," she said.

"There are going to be more cultists there than I can handle by myself," Vale realized.

Now it was Mew's turn to think for a second.

" **It just so happens that there are a couple of other Legends who owe me favors and could probably be talked into helping.** "

Vale was starting to relax. This plan might actually work. Having a Legend on her side was a huge confidence-booster, even if he didn't interfere directly in her affairs.

Then she had an idea.

"Do you think Audrey will be there?" she asked.

" **I think it's very possible,** " Mew replied.

Vale turned and started to walk out of the room.

" **Where are you going?** " Mew asked.

"To find a phone."

* * *

Mew watched as Vale walked out the door and closed it behind her. He hadn't always liked her. When he'd gone to rescue her from Persephone, he'd gone simply because the girl was Chosen, and that meant that _someone_ had to step in and save her neck. When he'd been sure she could handle herself, he'd left and returned to the Hall, only for a not-very-pleased Arceus to send him straight back with express orders to protect her.

Even if it meant breaking the Edict.

When it was passed, Mew hadn't really cared one way or another, but now he found it inconvenient and rather confusing. Once, the chief duty of Legends was to protect mortals, especially those like Vale who were chasing ways to make the world a better place. That charge to protect was in the Creed; in fact, it was the first article of the Creed, the highest law they lived by.

Or at least it had been. The general consensus was that the Edict was now the supreme law of the Legendary Realm, but there were plenty of dissenters, like Shaymin and now apparently Celebi, who insisted that Arceus couldn't simply change which law superseded which other law. He was, after all, bound by them as much as any other Legend.

But in this, at least, there was no question as to what Mew was supposed to do.

" **I'll keep her safe,** " he whispered. " **I promise.** "

* * *

At 2:50, Vale found herself standing out in front of the dump. Damien was in there somewhere, and she had to save him. She didn't need psychic powers to know that this would be the hardest thing she'd ever done.

Just stepping into the dump was difficult, walking through it more so. First off, everything stunk. Second, there was a pervasive feeling of being watched that only got worse as she walked. She tried to pass the time—and alleviate the clenching in her stomach—by going over the plan in her head. But there wasn't much of one. Actually, everything she and Mew had come up with could be summed up in one word: stall. Lots and lots of stalling.

Hopefully, that wasn't what Audrey was expecting.

A surprising number of Pokémon lived in the dump. Although when Vale thought about it, it wasn't actually all that surprising. There was probably quite a bit of food here, food humans had thrown out. There were Rattata, a couple of Meowth, and, of course, Grimer and Stunky. Living in the dump was possible for them, she supposed, and she wouldn't be surprised if the dump turned out of be less polluted than the river, but they would have to leave periodically to find Berries with which to supplement their diets. There was no way Berry bushes could grow here.

Finally, she spotted who she was there to meet, in a flat area that had been mostly cleared of trash.

Damien knelt in the dirt, his hands tied behind his back. A blue-haired cultist stood behind him, one hand holding on to the back of his shirt, the other casually gripping a knife. A young woman with long black hair streaked with blue stood a few feet away, conversing with two other cultists. All four wore the uniform: a one-piece blue outfit that vaguely resembled a wetsuit, with a lattice of red lines starting at the right shoulder and running across the chest.

Vale stepped into the clearing. The cultist holding Damien saw her first and cleared his throat. The woman spun around.

"So you came," she said.

"So I did," Vale replied. "I guessing you must be Audrey."

"That would be me."

"Well, here I am. What happens now? Your ransom note was rather vague." _Just keep stalling._

"Now you give me Mew."

"Oh, honestly," Vale said. "You're as bad as Persephone." Audrey raised an eyebrow at the mention of the Darkrai Cult leader's name. "I didn't catch Mew, so I can't just hand him over, and even if I could, do you really think you can control a Legendary Pokémon?"

"You think I didn't consider that?"

Vale thought for a second before responding. "I doubt you _considered_ it enough."

"Oh?"

"You're underestimating him. I don't even need to know what you've planned for to know that."

"Where is he, anyway?"

"Beyond your reach," Vale said. It was technically true.

"Meaning…what exactly?"

"That I don't know. And I don't really want to know. He comes and goes as he pleases, and I'd have to be crazy to try and stop him."

"I think you're lying."

"Really? Then you're stupider than you look."

"Vale," Damien hissed in horror. The cultist holding him jerked back on his shirt.

Audrey tensed and reached for a Pokéball.

Vale realized too late that saying that probably made _her_ the stupid one.

 _Come on, Mew,_ she thought. _What's taking so long?_

Suddenly, Audrey grabbed the ball from her belt and threw it, releasing a Qwilfish.

 _A battle, huh,_ Vale thought. _Well, that's one way to stall. Okay, Abyssal Cult, probably a lot of Water-types. That means my best bets are Luxray and Serperior. This thing is Water/Poison…_

Vale grabbed a ball of her own. "Luxray, go."

"Prepare to lose, twerp," Audrey taunted. "Qwilfish, use Toxic."

Vale didn't have time to tell Luxray to dodge before a ball of something purple struck her in the shoulder.

 _Crap. Better end this fast._

"Thunder Fang."

Luxray leapt forward and sank her teeth into the Qwilfish. There was a flash of lightning, and Luxray jumped back, leaving the Water-type with a smoking wound in its side.

"Venoshock," Audrey called. Another blast of purple hit Luxray, who cried out in pain.

"Finish it off," Vale cried. "Thunder Fang."

Luxray was already leaping when…

"Destiny Bond."

"No!" Vale cried, but it was too late. Luxray sank her teeth in. Qwilfish fainted. Then a blast of ghostly energy hit Luxray, and she fainted too.

Audrey didn't miss a beat. She grabbed another ball.

"Gyarados," she called.

 _Intimidate_ , Vale thought. She sent out Serperior, who immediately glowed red.

"Contrary, huh?" Audrey muttered.

"Leaf Blade," Vale called almost immediately.

Audrey was caught just slightly off guard, so Serperior was already moving by the time she called Ice Fang.

Gyarados lunged, teeth coated in ice, but Serperior, who Vale was starting to realize was more than capable of winning a battle without her, dodged nimbly aside and sliced his glowing tail down Gyarados' side.

"How does something without legs move that fast?" Audrey said. "Ice Fang again."

Again, Gyarados lunged, and again Serperior dodged and swiped with his tail. Again he connected.

Gyarados came in for a third strike.

"Aqua Tail this time," Audrey called. Gyarados flipped his body, preparing to strike with the other end instead. Serperior readied a third Leaf Blade.

Vale got an idea. "Leaf Tornado," she called.

A blast of leaves hit Gyarados, who fainted.

"You're not half bad," Audrey admitted. "I was trying to catch you off guard, and it didn't work. But you won't beat the rest of my team."

"Try me," Vale said.

"Sharpedo!"

Audrey immediately ordered Ice Fang.

Sharpedo rushed forwards.

Vale got another idea, a crazy one this time. _Sharpedo has really poor defenses, and Serperior's attack is boosted. What if…_

"Let it come to you," she said. "And ready Leaf Blade."

"What?" Audrey muttered.

Serperior gave her a look that told her he hated this idea, but he did as she said, slithering just far enough out of the way to keep Sharpedo from getting a good grip on him. Once Sharpedo's teeth were in his skin, he seemed to understand was Vale was thinking. He brought his tail up.

It dawned on Audrey at the same moment. "Sharpedo, get back."

Sharpedo let go and started moving back, but not quite quickly enough. Serperior's Leaf Blade caught him in the jaw, and he instantly collapsed.

Audrey recalled him.

"Your little snake won't beat my last Pokémon," Audrey said. "Dragalge, go."

 _No, he won't. You're right,_ Vale thought. She got ready to switch out.

" ** _No, stay in_** ," whispered Mew's voice in her head. " ** _I want to test something._** "

 _At the expense of my Pokémon?_ Vale thought back.

" ** _Please trust me. This could be the difference between winning and losing this battle._** "

 _All right._

"Leaf Tornado." Predictably, it did nothing.

Audrey faked a yawn. "That's the best you've got? Sludge Bomb."

A ball of dark purple goop hit Serperior, who immediately fainted.

" ** _As I feared,_** " Mew said. " ** _Vale, that's Adaptability_**

 _Crap._ She'd forgotten about Dragalge's secondary Ability. There was only one thing on her team that could take an Adaptability-boosted Draco Meteor (or any other Dragon-type move, for that matter): the thing that was immune to it.

She thought back and remembered how Trainers in the tournaments she'd watched would deal with something like this. It was risky, but if it worked, she would cripple the Dragalge.

She sent out Donphan.

"That's your ace in the hole?" Audrey laughed. "Draco Meteor."

Vale looked up and saw a point of light. It was rapidly growing, signaling the imminent arrival of one's of the strongest moves known.

"No," Vale said.

"What?"

"That's not my ace. Donphan, return." She called Donphan back to his ball.

Then she sent out Venusaur. "This is," she said.

A horrified look crossed Audrey's face.

Then the Draco Meteor hit its target. The blue-and-red fireball sent up a cloud of dust as it hit. Mew threw up a Psychic shield around Vale. Audrey ducked and covered her head. Damien cried out.

When the dust settled, Audrey stood, a layer of dirt covering her clothes. The shield around Vale dissipated in a split second, before anyone but her had a chance to notice it. Venusaur was still standing, completely untouched.

Audrey raised her eyebrows, clearly recognizing what had just happened.

Dragalge glowed blue.

"Psychic," Vale ordered.

"Wait." The twitch of Audrey's hand was just enough to send a signal to the other cultists. Suddenly, there was a knife at Damien's throat.

"Venusaur, stop!" Vale cried.

"And now you understand what you face," Audrey said slowly. "Recall your Pokemon."

"You realize this doesn't change anything, right?" Vale asked as she did. "I still can't give you Mew."

"Can't you?" Audrey asked.

" ** _What did I miss?_** " asked a familiar voice.

"Aw, dang it!"

Mew had just materialized.

 _Did you get help?_ Vale thought at him.

" ** _She's coming._** "

 _Who?_

" ** _You'll see._** " Mew didn't sound particularly happy about whomever it was coming to help.

A green light appeared behind Audrey.

" ** _Right on time,_** " Mew observed.

In an explosion of green, Mew's back-up materialized. A small, white, deer-like Pokémon hovered there, wreathed in a nimbus of green light.

"Shaymin?" Audrey cried, spinning around. She opened her mouth to call an order, only to quickly close it again when she remembered that Dragalge's Adaptability boost had just been effectively countered.

" **I'm going to guess that you're the one I'm supposed to blast,** " Shaymin said as the green light faded. Her eyes glowed pink, and Dragalge collapsed. Audrey's composure was clearly starting to break.

But she had one advantage left.

She snapped her fingers, and the cultist holding Damien pulled him to his feet, still pressing the knife against his throat.

"If you want to see him again, you won't follow us," she said. Then she snapped her fingers again. "Let's go," she said, gesturing to the other side of the clearing.

Three of the cultists started moving in that direction. The one holding Damien didn't budge. He was held tightly in Mew's Psychic grip.

He lifted the man off the ground and flung him away from his allies. Vale rushed to Damien and started working at the ropes. Just as she managed to free his hands, she heard a tremendous roar as a police helicopter flew overhead.

Mew Teleported. Shaymin used Double Team, hoping to disorient any cops who were currently looking at her. Her form blurred as she suddenly seemed to be in multiple places at once.

Audrey looked up. "How much can go wrong in a day?" she yelled over the noise.

Someone in that helicopter was now demanding Audrey's surrender over a loudspeaker.

"What did you…" Damien started.

"I solved our money problem."

Audrey looked across the clearing at the last member of her team, who was just getting to his feet.

And then she turned tail and ran the other way.

The occupants of the helicopter were now dropping a rope ladder and scrambling down it. Vale pulled Damien into the shadow of a pile of garbage. Shaymin was now nowhere to be seen.

Three of the police officers that had been in the helicopter stayed in the clearing to arrest the cultist who'd been left behind and to secure the area. The others spread out, covering as much ground as possible while the helicopter hovered above.

"What do you mean you solved our money problem?" Damien asked.

"Hey, over there!" They'd been spotted.

Vale quickly stood up and raised her hands. "Wait," she said. "I'm the one who called in the tip."

"Really? And how did you know Audrey Haskill would be here?"

"Luck, mostly," Vale lied. "I've had a few run-ins with the Abyssals lately. One of her grunts let it slip that there would be a meeting here."

That got an eyebrow raise in response.

 _Oh crap_.

"Not sure I believe that, but you seem like a good kid. And you certainly helped us out." The officer pulled out an envelope. "Here's the reward."

He handed it to her.

"Oh. That's what," said Damien.

* * *

 **AN: An Abyssal plot forces Vale to rely on Mew and produces a new ally for the journey ahead.**

 **Sorry this took so long. I had a lot on my plate at once, between an original fiction project and other school-related stresses. I promised in my last journal over on DeviantArt that it would be up by the end of Thanksgiving break, but then I wasn't sure about the quality, so I waited.**

 **The whole episode with Damien in the dump is in the game, but as with everything, I've changed a lot, largely due to the fact that _Pokemon: Insurgence_ is far from a complete game. **

**I wanted the ransom note to be something different. Instead of the rather cliche "If you ever want to see him again..." I went with something slightly more subtle.**

 **Two battles in this chapter, as you can see. I hope I've done a good job of conveying that Vale is getting much better at battling.**

 **If the exchange with the cop felt a forced or shorter than it should have been, good. You'll understand why in a few more chapters.**

 **Lastly, Shaymin. Probably my favorite character in this story. Unfortunately, it didn't make sense to have a lot of her in this chapter after I decided to include the police. There will be much more of her in the next several, though.**


	16. Chapter 15: Land of Extremes

A man dressed all in green walked down a narrow hallway toward a single door at the far end. He pushed the door open and walked into a dimly lit room.

The owner of this office was sitting in a swivel chair facing away from the door. The man in green took a few steps into the room and bowed respectfully to the seated figure.

"Report," spoke the man in the chair.

"The girl has received the money from the tip she called in. She is once again on her way."

"Good. I have a plan in place to deal with her. She must be prevented from interfering in our plans."

"Respectfully, sir, she is only a child…"

"A child who bears the mark of the Creator. She is the greatest threat to us in all of Torren."

"Yes, sir."

"Speaking of which, how go our plans?"

"They go well. The ritual is prepared. All that remains is the waiting."

"Good. Lady Rayquaza will lend her power to our cause, one way or another."

"I'm sorry, sir. I think I must have heard you wrong. Are you truly planning to _force_ the Sky Dragon to aid us?"

"That is none of your concern, East. Let me worry about the manner in which I will convince her."

"Yes, sir."

"Now, leave me in peace."

* * *

The envelope contained 200 Poké. Split evenly, that was 100 each. Vale and Damien divided it up back at the Pokémon Center, then quickly began making preparations to leave. The 24-hour period during which their rooms were free had already technically elapsed, and Vale was hoping to get out of town before the nurse realized.

Fortunately, packing was easy. Neither kid was carrying very much stuff.

Once Vale finished, she went into Damien's room to see if he needed any help, but he was done too. As she turned to leave, there was a flash of green light.

A familiar Pokémon was sitting on Damien's head.

"Sh-shaymin?" Vale asked in surprise.

" **What do you say?** " the little Legendary asked.

"Uuuh…thank….you?"

"Get off me!" Damien snapped.

He shook his head, trying to dislodge her, but she simply lifted into the air and settled back down as soon as the shaking stopped.

Damien folded his arms and plopped down on the bed.

Vale couldn't help but chuckle.

"It's not funny, Vale," Damien said.

" **Actually, it is,** " Shaymin pronounced.

"Why are you here?" Vale asked.

" **Because you need my help. More specifically,** ** _he_** **needs my help.** "

"I do not," Damien protested.

" **Looked in the mirror lately?** " Shaymin asked him.

"You're breaking the Edict?" Vale asked.

" **I'm far from the first. Ever met Reshiram?** " Vale nodded. " **I've never agreed with it, I've never respected it, and I don't particularly care what Arceus has to say about that.** "

"I like her," Vale said.

"I don't," Damien responded.

Shaymin leaned forward, looking Damien in the eye upside-down. " **Well, you're stuck with me.** "

Damien tried to protest again, but Shaymin ignored him. She jumped off his head and pressed her nose to a spare Pokéball that Damien had set on the bed while he packed. Her form dissolved into red light, and she disappeared inside.

Damien swore under his breath.

"Well, at least now you've got your own Legendary helper," Vale pointed out.

* * *

Vale and Damien split up after checking out. Even inside a Pokéball, it seemed, Shaymin was extremely forceful in insisting that Damien do a few things before leaving town. Since Vale had her own list of things to take care of, they decided to do it separately.

The first place Vale went was the TM shop to pick up the one that was still on hold. It turned out she was just in time. After buying that, she wandered around for a while looking for a Contest supply store, before heading back to the TM shop to ask for directions. The ones she got weren't perfect, but they got her close enough.

Once there, Vale purchased a month's supply of (surprisingly cheap) Pokéblocks from a rather snobbish clerk who became much nicer once she let out Feebas and explained the situation. He even threw in a book called _Contest Training for Dummies_ for free.

Then it was time for some serious supply-buying. Vale had spent most of her healing items and a decent portion of the Pokémon food on the walk from Suntouched City to Metchi Town. And those weren't the only supplies she needed to stock up on.

Rezzai Desert was a brutal place. The crossing was very doable, but only by someone who prepared sufficiently beforehand. Unprepared travelers never made it through unscathed, if they made it through at all, but with the right supplies anyone could survive it.

The most important thing to take was water, and lots of it. Just as important was stocking up on food for herself, as well as shelter to protect her from the cold desert nights.

Vale also bought a pair of goggles designed to reduce the amount of light that entered her eyes and cut down on glare off the sand. Sun-blindness would definitely throw a wrench into her travel plans.

* * *

As Vale packed and made final preparations for the trip across the desert, something fell out of her backpack. She was sitting on a bench near the center of town taking inventory of everything she had purchased when her pack fell onto its side and a familiar book came sliding out.

 _Concerning the Legends._ She'd packed it largely due to Mew's sudden presence in her life, and, somewhat ironically, in all the recent chaos, not the least part of which was meeting other Legends, she'd completely forgotten about it.

She picked up the book and let it fall open. And her father's letter fell out.

Right. She'd put that in here. Fighting off the renewed urge to open it, she picked it up and stuck it inside the back cover of the book.

And then she noticed where she had stuck it originally. The left page featured a beautiful drawing of Mega Rayquaza. The right told the story of the primal battle between Kyogre and Groudon and how Rayquaza had come to stop it, thereby making herself known to humans for the first time.

Vale couldn't help but notice that the Sky Dragon had popped up a lot in the last year or so. The dream. The drawing. This. Not to mention the Jade Tower's roof ornament.

* * *

The last thing on the list before leaving Vipik City was to use the TM she'd bought, but Vale abruptly realized that she had no idea how to do that. The discs hadn't been widely available in Torren since before the League left. She'd have quite the problem on her hands if the one she'd just bought hadn't come with instructions.

She pulled out the disc. It was smaller than she remembered them being, but the only ones she'd ever seen had been on "behind-the-scenes" segments of the League tournament reruns she'd watched so many times. Those TMs hadn't always been shown alongside easy ways to reckon their sizes.

This one was only about the size of her palm and was colored a light blue, indicating that it contained an Ice-Type move. There were no instructions.

She seriously considered walking back to the TM shop to ask for help. She took far longer than she should have needed to realize that both her PokéGear and her handheld had access to the web and that surely the information she needed could be found online.

She ran a quick search on "TM instructions" and got nearly a million results.

She scrolled through the results on her handheld, finally stopping at the official website of the Kalos Pokémon League.

 _Step 1,_ the page read, _Put the disc into the Pokéball of the Pokémon you wish to learn the move. The same procedure used to return Pokémon to their balls should work, as the TM contains a small amount of Pokémon energy that the ball's system will lock on to._

Vale put the TM on her lap, not wanting to use the ground in case it scratched the disc. She aimed Feebas' ball toward it, and to her surprise, a familiar red beam shot out and pulled the disc in, leaving behind a slight tingling feeling where the beam had touched her skin.

 _Step 2: Wait at least five minutes before letting the Pokémon out of the ball, at which time it will have learned the desired move._

 _Well, that was easy,_ Vale thought.

 _Step 3: To retrieve the spent TM, open or activate the Pokéball while the Pokémon is outside of it and out of range. Leaving the disc in the ball for a long period of time will have no negative effects on the Pokémon._

 _Step 4: Spent TMs can be recharged in any store that sells them, but for a fee._

TMs could be recharged? Vale had never known that. Certainly the League had never allowed the ones they sold to be recharged.

* * *

Rezzai was just as brutal as Vale had expected, maybe more so. Burning hot during the day, but turning to freezing cold as soon as the sun went down. Vale knew she had to get in some training on this last leg of her trip. Her team was not where it needed to be, especially Growlithe and Feebas.

Desert-dwelling Pokémon tended to be Rock, Ground, and Steel-types, and many of them were dangerous. Tyranitar and Garchomp were both extremely aggressive Pokémon, and, while finding fully-evolved wild Pokémon was exceedingly rare, the earlier stages of those evolution lines were just as dangerous. Those were the biggest dangers. Aggron and their pre-evolved forms were only aggressive if provoked. The same was true of Onix, Steelix, and the Geodude line, although the last was easier to provoke, due to their habit of posing as rocks. Many people got nasty surprises upon sitting down.

With that in mind, Vale was limited as to which Pokémon she could use. In an instance where she was genuinely in danger and battling for her life against an angry wild Pokémon, she had to make sure she chose one of her team who actually stood a good chance of winning the fight. Luxray would not be battling at all for a while, and Growlithe would be an equally poor choice in most situations. Serperior would be ideal, as would Feebas, assuming she evolved soon. Venusaur was bulky enough to hold his own, and, while Vale would be less comfortable sending out Donphan, due to his poor speed, a lucky Magnitude could certainly ruin an Aggron's day.

With that in mind, Vale started across the desert. The winds and blowing sand quickly made the going difficult, and Vale let out Venusaur to act as a windbreak. Once her Delta started to tire out, she recalled him and ducked behind a rock in the hopes that the wind would subside.

During what seemed like a lull in the wind, she stood up and kept walking, only to realize that this was not, in fact, a lull. She put on her goggles to try and keep the blowing sand out of her eyes, and that worked. To a degree.

The wind only truly let up when the sun set and the temperature dropped precipitously. Vale immediately bundled up in her jacket, which she'd been wearing tied around her waist.

But that wasn't enough to keep out the cold, and after a few more minutes of travel, Vale was forced to stop and make camp. She pitched her tent in the shadow of a large rock and hoped she was suitably hidden. She hadn't initially considered the danger of ordinary desert animals: snakes, scorpions, and the like. Pokémon weren't the only danger out here.

The best solution would be to make a fire, but there were no materials nearby, and she didn't want to stay out of her sleeping bag for the time it would take to collect some.

She bundled up in the thermal sleeping bag she'd purchased and let out Growlithe, knowing that his inner flame would keep them both warm.

* * *

The first day and night in the desert were uneventful. That would not be the case the rest of the trip. As Vale headed deeper in, she saw more and more Pokémon. Many of these challenged her and her team. Serperior in particular gained a lot of experience. Venusaur and Donphan also did quite a bit of battling. Growlithe got to try out his Flamethrower on a couple of Steel-Types. Even Feebas gained some experience via a somewhat risky technique called switch-training, which involved the Trainer sending out a Pokémon, ordering one attack, and then immediately switching. Despite all the battling, no one learned any new moves.

By midday of the second day in Rezzai, and the second day of dealing with blowing sand, Vale was wishing vehemently that she'd brought Racer with her. On his back, she could bypass all of this.

The sand took its toll on all of them, making the going far slower and damaging the Pokémon the second they were sent out. Only Donphan seemed unaffected, due to his Typing.

Things got a little more complicated that afternoon, when a Gabite managed to knock out Serperior. Vale nearly panicked. Sending out any of her other Pokémon would only result in them being knocked out unnecessarily. None of them was a good match-up against a Gabite. Except Venusaur, who was tired out from several earlier battles in addition to acting as a living windbreak.

But if she didn't send one out, she'd be putting herself in danger.

 _Wait a second,_ she thought.

Vale remembered the Roselia she'd encountered en route to Midna Town. The one that had bowed to her.

What were the chances that this Gabite would behave similarly?

"Well," she told it," Congratulations. You just won a Trainer battle. Now leave."

It did.

* * *

Vale wasn't stupid enough to think that the same thing would be true of every Pokémon in the desert. Some would be too angry at her intrusion to notice that there was something special about her, or maybe simply too aggressive to care.

Yet most of the Pokémon they encountered showed her at least some measure of respect. The few who managed to defeat one of Vale's Pokémon turned and ran off, as though going to share the story of their great accomplishment with their friends.

By the end of the second day in the desert, Vale could see Rezzai Cavern. The cavern was a strange landform, a stone tunnel that covered and shielded the last part of the path from Vipik to Helios. It was almost certainly artificial, but in a world where creatures existed that could manipulate terrain as they wished, the question of who carved it was not a very big one.

While the cavern seemed linear, it was not. Part way along its length it joined with an old mine, which stretched beneath it in a long series of twists and turns and side paths. Rock and Ground-Type Trainers absolutely loved the area.

Vale loved the area too, but for a different reason. Once inside the cavern, she would be away from the brunt of both the wind and the heat.

Night came before Vale made it inside, but she was so eager to get into the relative comfort of the cavern that she gritted her teeth and bore the cold for the last couple minutes it took to make it to the entrance.

Once inside, she pitched her tent and settled down to what she hoped to be the nicest night sleep she'd had since leaving Vipik.

* * *

She was wrong. The nightmare came again that night.

 _She walks down a city street. It is a beautiful, clear day, but no one else is outside. She wonders where they are._

 _The sky goes dark. A wind picks up. She breaks into a run, looking for a place to shelter from the coming storm, but she sees nothing._

 _She sees a figure on the street in front of her, and as she gets closer, she sees that it is her father, covered in blood and holding her mother's dead body in his arms._

 _"Why?" he asks._

* * *

Vale snapped awake. Darkrai again. Why couldn't he just leave her alone?

There was a small amount of light coming into the tunnel from above. Sunlight. She was confused about where it was coming from until she noticed the hole in the ceiling, likely created by blowing sand eroding the stone. She chuckled to herself when she saw the light coming through. If she didn't know better, she would never have guessed, looking at this beam, just how punishing the sun was just outside the cavern.

She packed up quickly. It would take close to a whole day to get through the cavern, and the far end was still half a day's walk from Helios. Tomorrow was the 14th day of the trip, the last day before Jaern's deadline. There was no time to waste.

The walk through the cavern was easy compared to crossing the desert. Compared to the desert itself, the tunnel was cool and pleasant. There weren't even very many Pokémon living in the cavern itself. They were all lower down, in the mine.

The cavern was not without its dangers, most of them having to do with the mine. The ladders that led to the lower levels could easily be fallen down in the dark, and there were places where the mine had caved in, collapsing the floor above.

All were easily avoided if one had a functioning flashlight, however, so Vale had little trouble.

At least with the natural dangers.

After a couple hours of walking, she heard voices from the tunnel ahead of her. Not wanting to turn the flashlight off entirely, she put her hand over it to dim the light as she carefully walked forward.

After only a few more steps, she realized that her light was not the only light source in the tunnel. She quickly flicked it off.

She edged forward, using the wall for guidance. She peaked around the corner and saw a man in hiker's gear surrounded by four other people wearing…

 _Oh, not again_.

Green uniforms. Sky Cult.

All four cultists were armed, and the hiker was clearly scared. Vale's common sense told her to ignore what was happening and go around, but confronting cultists was starting to become second nature for her. Her conscience refused to let her do anything other than step in.

"The tablet. Hand it over," said one cultist.

"W-why?" stammered the hiker.

"That's none of your concern, but if you must know, it tells how to summon Legends. One Legend in particular."

Being Sky Cult, the Legend they were referring to had to be Rayquaza. Vale didn't know of any specific rituals for summoning Legends. The priests always simply prayed. Persephone had said a short invocation, but it was far from being so complicated that one would need detailed instructions.

"Hand it over," said a second cultist, jabbing his gun into the man's back.

"No. Not to you. Never to you."

"Very well," said the first cultist.

He pulled out his own gun and shot the hiker in the chest.

Vale screamed in spite of herself.

Two flashlight beams immediately converged on her position.

"Shit," she whispered.

"Get rid of her."

The two cultists who hadn't spoken stepped toward her.

"Pidgeot!"

"Deino!"

Vale pulled two Pokéballs out of her bag and let out Venusaur and Luxray simultaneously.

"Pidgeot, use Aerial Ace."

The Pidgeot flew straight at Luxray. Vale considered calling a dodge before remembering that Aerial Ace couldn't miss. Sure enough, even though Luxray made her own attempt to get out of the way, Pidgeot followed her unerringly.

When the attack finally hit, Luxray shook it off easily and seemed surprised that it hadn't done more damage.

"Venusaur, use…" Vale paused for a second as the realization hit her that Venusaur's only Fairy-Type move was still Fairy Wind. "…use Fairy Wind. On the Deino."

The familiar pink-tinged gust of wind barely touched the Deino before it fainted. Doubly-effective moves were certainly nothing to sneeze at.

"Thunder Fang, Luxray."

Luxray leapt forward, teeth crackling with electricity. She sank them into the Pidgeot's wing. It screeched in pain and fell out of the air as the electricity coursed through its body. Vale didn't need to check the Pokémon's energy levels on her Pokédex to know that this would be one of the easiest battles she'd ever fought.

"Pidgeot, Whirlwind the Luxray."

Pidgeot didn't move.

 _Paralysis_? Vale wondered.

"Psychic," she called to Venusaur. His eyes glowed pink, and Pidgeot too collapsed.

"Fools!" shouted the leader. "Garchomp, go!"

Vale froze. This thing was almost certainly too strong for her to handle.

"Earthquake." Unlike the last cultist who'd called that move against Vale, this man didn't sound excited, just cruel.

Luxray immediately fainted. Vale pulled out her Pokédex just in time to see Venusaur's energy drop by nearly eighty percent.

This Garchomp was definitely out of her league. If Venusaur couldn't handle it, nothing on her team could.

Suddenly, a Pokéball in her bag popped open, and Feebas materialized.

"Is that the best you can do?"

"No," Vale said, frantically grabbing Feebas's Pokéball. "Feebas, return." The Pokéball's beam slid right off the fish Pokémon's scales.

"What?" Vale whispered. Any Pokémon could let itself out of Pokéball, but usually only the most powerful of them were able to prevent the return beam from working.

Suddenly, Feebas began to glow. After a couple seconds, there was a Milotic sitting curled on the cave floor where there had been a Feebas floating above it.

"Impossible," whispered the cultist.

"I thought so too. Ice Beam."

Unfortunately, the beam didn't do nearly as much damage as Vale had hoped. Milotic was too inexperienced.

"That _is_ the best you can do. Outrage."

" **Dazzling Gleam,** " screamed a voice.

Vale, familiar with Mew's version of this move, quickly looked away. When she looked back, the Garchomp had fainted and four astonished cultists were staring at Shaymin, who was perched on a stalagmite, looking very smug.

" **Get out,** " she told them.

They ran for it, dashing off in the direction of Helios City and pushing past Damien, who had just arrived. In the light of his flashlight beam, Vale saw that her friend had changed. He was wearing a much newer t-shirt and jeans now, and something seemed different about his bearing.

"Hi, Vale," he said. "We thought we'd come looking for you, and I see we were just in time."

"How did you get to Helios before me?" she asked.

"Borrowed another Flying-type. Please don't tell the Augur."

"No problem. You're not the only one to fudge the rules."

Shaymin suddenly cleared her throat, and Vale remembered the hiker. She ran to where he had fallen.

She crouched down beside him and started fumbling in her pack for the first aid kit. And then she noticed he wasn't breathing.

In his now-limp hand, he held a small, stone tablet, now stained with blood.

Vale carefully extracted it from his fingers. It was a simple slab of dark stone, etched with symbols that she couldn't read.

"What the heck is this that it was worth that? Shaymin," she called, "can you read this?"

Shaymin jumped off the stalagmite and flew over.

" **What am I reading?** " she asked.

"They said it was directions for a summoning."

Shaymin looked at the tablet.

" **This isn't a summoning, Vale.** "

"Then what is it?"

" **Complete gibberish.** "

* * *

 **AN: Alone, Vale embarks on the most dangerous leg of her journey, and along the way runs afoul of the fifth and last of Torren's cults...**

 **This chapter marks the beginning of the end of part 1 of this story, and also the beginning of the third, and by far the longest, main story arc. The first arc was chapters 1-3, the second was chapters 4-14, and the third begins now.**

 **Anybody remember who East is?**

 **That first scene is the explanation for why the police weren't more suspicious of Vale's tip. They'd been directed by that fellow in the chair to ensure she made it to Helios (If you're familiar with the game, you've probably guessed who that guy is. No spoilers, please).**

 **More Shaymin. The Gratitude Pokemon is defintitely a little bit of a jerk about her job. That "What do you say?" is basically her catch-phrase.**

 **Introducing TM headcanon...**

 **...and another showing from Darkrai. More on him later, I promise.**

 **And we finally meet Cult Number Five. Ice-type moves are a big help in this game.**

 **Did those cultists really kill someone for no reason? Did they think the tablet had value? You'll find out...**

 **The climax of part 1 starts next chapter. It wil have 3-4 parts, but I probably won't upload until all 3-4 are ready.**


End file.
